Birds of a Feather
by Faeore
Summary: Ash finds an Articuno, but is it wild? (note: don't bug about spelling mistakes, no spell checker at the time and this fic is.... old... ^.^;;)
1. Birds of a Feather Part 1

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part One:

"Wow! What's that?" Ash yelled out, shielding his eyes from the sun as he peered out into a grassy area along the road side.

With Pikachu perched on his head, Ash ran out into the field with Misty and Brock trailing far behind. Sitting on a tree branch was a blue bird that looked almost as if it was sparkling in the evening sunlight. Ash stopped just as he was only a few meters away from the shinning bird and set pikachu down beside him.

"Okay, Pikachu," Ash whispered, trying not to spook the bird before he could even attempt to catch it. "Sneak up to it and give it a thunder shock!"

"Ash!" Brock called out as he and Misty caught up finally. "Wait, you should check with Dex before you attack it, to see what pokémon is best suited to catch it!"

Ash nodded and waved Pikachu back before he attacked. "Okay then."

Ash took his backpack off of his shoulder and pulled out pokédex. Ash pointed Dex at the bird and waited for the information to be dictated.

"Articuno," Dex began as it showed a picture of the bird. "An ice and flying type pokémon. Extreamly rare, it is believed to be almost extinced."

Just as Dex stopped, Articuno looked up and stared down at the group, it's red eyes glaring straight down at Ash. "Articuno!" the bird yelled out and flew down attacking Ash.

Pikachu jumped in front of ash and charged up getting ready to fight.

"PIKA-CHU!!!" Pikachu yelled as he electricuted the bird along with Ash, Misty, and Brock.

"Pikachu..." Ash moaned.

Ash sat up and looked beside him to see the fainted bird belly up right beside him. The articuno was hurt pretty badly from the shock and wasn't even breathing.

"ARTICUNO!" a voice called out from the other side of the field.

Suddenly a blue haired girl came running across the field as fast as she could and followed by someone else.

Brock was at the bird's side and was triying to get it to breath again, but, before he could, the girl arrived and kicked him, litterally, out of the way. After she sat down with the bird the person that had been behind her caught up.

"GARY?!?!" Ash yelled, staring wide eyed.

"Yo, Ash! I should have guessed," Gary snorted. "Only someone as dumb as you would kill and almost extinced pokémon! Some pokémon trainer you are!"

The girl propped up the Articuno's head and poured a potion into its beak. The bird woke up and seemed to be disorented but fine other wise. The articuno cooed and shook off as it stood up and the others looked shocked at the quick recovery.

"I'll have Pokémon HQ revoke your trainer licence for this!" she yelled. "And I don't think Professor Oak will like the fact that one of of his own trainers hurt an articuno!"

She stoked the bird's feathers then sat it on it's feet where it cuddled up to her legs beside her.

Gary smirked and looked at the three trainers. "So, nice way to impress the newest official gym's leader. Heh, she'll cream you good now. And from what I hear you've only gotten the cascade badge and boulder badge from these two cause they took pity on ya! And I won't even go near how you got some of the others..."

Ash began to growl and Pikachu charged up again. "Pi-ka..."

"Ash! Stop!" Misty yelled. "He has a point you know..."

"You never actually defeated either of us..." Brock agreed.

Ash fell to the ground and moaned. "You guys!" he snapped, getting up and shaking his fist at Brock and Misty.

Gary started to laugh. "This is rich! Hey, Ash. Let's see how bad you are. A pokémon battle, you and me. And then we'll see who's the better trainer!"

"Alright!" Ash exclaimed.

"Well, since Arti' here is the local gym trainer we'll have her be the judge of the battle," Gary said, taking a poké ball off of his belt.

"Arti'?" Ash, Brock, and Misty all asked at the same time.

Arti nodded, "I was named after an articuno. And my badge is the feather badge since I'm mostly a rare bird pokémon trainer. And with my birds I've defeated the Elite Four and earned the right to be called a Pokémon Master."

Ash and the others looked stunned. They hadn't run into an official Pokémon Master in their travels untill now. "A real Master...?" Ash said in awe.

"Enough already," Gary growled. "Two pokémon battle. Last one left standing wins."

"Okay, in that case," Ash said grabbing a poké ball. "Squirtle! I chose you!"

Gary snorted as he pulled a poké ball from his belt, "In that case... Go, Ivysaur!"

The two pokémon appeared from their poké balls and were battle ready.

"An Ivysaur!?" Ash exclaimed "Um, plant and bug pokémon are strong against water pokémon..."

"Ivysaur! Vine whip!"

Ivysaur's vines extrended and whipped out at squirtle. Squirtle dodged and fell to the ground with a hard thump. He then rolled back onto his feet and looked ready to attack back.

"Squirtle! uhh... Bite!"

Squirtle ran up to Ivysaur and bit at its neck. Ivysaur growled and shook Squirtle off throwing him back to the ground.

"Ivysaur! Leech seed!"

Ivysaur's flower on his back spit out seeds that attached onto squirtle and drained him of his energy. Squirtle yelled out as his energy was being drained from him.

"SQUIRTLE!!!" Ash called out.

Ash reached for his poké ball and called squirtle back. _I could use Charazard..._ Ash thought as he held the poké ball with Charazard in it. _But... will he listen to me?_

After a long pause Ash desided.

"Alright!" Ash nodded to himself as if he'd found the answer to an unanswerable question. "Charazard! I chose you!"

Misty and Brock gasped as Ash let Charazard out. After the last few attempts to control Charazard they'd all agreed that he was too powerful to be used.

"A charazard?" Gary yelled out. "Holy cow!"

Charazard came out of the poké ball and started down at the Ivysaur. Charazard looked like he was waiting for a command from Ash but before anything was said the fire pokémon used flame thrower on Ivysaur and roasted him.

"Ivysaur! Come back!" Gary called. "Go, Gyra- AHH!"

Charazard wacked Gary aside with his tail and continued to beat him uncontrolably.

"Charazard! Stop!" Ash hollored. "Stop, now!"

Charazard continued his attacks and picked Gary up and squeezed him. "Stop you dumb lizard!" Gary yelled out, then screamed in pain as he was being crushed harder and harded.

"Go Articuno!!!"

Everyone looked to see Arti call on her bird that Ash had tried to catch only minutes before. The bird flew up above the dragon and circled about it's head.

"Aritcuno! Ice beam!"

Articuno began to glow then a beam shot towards Charazard and froze him solid.

"Moltres! Zapdos!" Arti screamed out into the field. "To me!"

Suddenly a fire bird shot up into the sky and came flying towards the battle. From the other side of the road, an electric bird came to join the battle also.

"Zapdos! Thunder!"

The stubby winged Zapdos flew onto Charazard's head and shocked the dragon, through the ice it had covering it, to the point that it was unconcious. Then the Moltres started it's fire spin attack before it was told to. Ash could tell from the way the birds worked together to control Charazard that Arti deserved he rank as a Pokémon Master, and beating her for a feather badge would be tough.

"Charazard! Return!" Ash called after Moltres melted the ice. Ash lowered his head then looked at the poké ball. "Why won't you listen to me Charazard...?"

Arti's birds all landed around her and Gary and were giving Ash's group strange looks. "Don't worry," Arti told her pokémon. "They're not going to hurt you anymore."

Misty came up to the articuno and petted it's crest. "You're a cute little, um, big, pokémon aren't you?"

The birds only reply was a squak and gust of ice cold wind.

Pikachu walked up to the Zapdos and poked it curiously. Pikachu wasn't used to having other electric pokémon around him. Sure, they had run into other electric pokémon on their travels but he was facinated with this one bird. Pikachu cocked his head aside and blinked while Zapdos ignored the smaller pokémon.

"Pikachu." Ash called, kneeling down.

Pikachu ran to Ash and jumped upon his head. "Pikapi! Pika!"

Arti sighed, "Come with me. We can go to the town where your pokémon can recove at the poké center." Arti then turned to Ash. "I need to talk to you about that Charazard of yours too. It isn't safe for an unskilled trainer to have such a-a brute."

Ash lowered his head again and followed Arti and the others as they headed towards the town. Ash didn't know what town it was around here, Misty had said they were going one way while Brock had said another. And they were fighting right up untill Ash had spotted the articuno now cuddling upto Arti.

"See? I told you he was a looser!" Gary chuckled, putting an arm around Arti. "Pure, luck he got this far! I'd love to see him make it to Indigo Plateau just so I can see the Elite Four beat the pants off of him! And if he gets lucky and beats 'em, then I'll just have to kick his rear myself since I'll be a Pokémon Master myself by then!"

_I'll show you, Gary,_ Ash thought._ I'll win this feather badge and make my dream of being a pokémon master come true! Then I'll be the one laughing at you as I beat you and all the other trainers of the world!_

Ash continued his train of thoughts as they walked along. With Pikachu right beside him, he trailed behind the others keeping his head hung in shame.


	2. Birds of a Feather Part 2

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Two:

As Arti, Gary, Ash, and the rest of their group entred Prussian Town Ash was still lagging behind the group. He didn't want Gary mocking him anymore then he was doing already. Ash might not have as many pokémon, badges, or friends as Gary, but what pokémon he had he cared for and they were all his friends, he had Brock and Misty too, and so what if he only had 6 badges right now! As soon as he challanged and beat Arti he'd have a seventh! He doubted Gary had even beat Arti yet. If he did, he'd have probably moved on by now. And, if Ash guessed right, Gary probably had all of his badges and would be on his way to Indigo Plateau, Pokémon HQ, with his fan club in tow.

Ash stoped in his tracks and looked up to the group in front of him. Arti, Gary, Misty, Brock... But where _was_ Gary's fan club? They had been around every other time Ash and Gary had met, but not this time.

Pikachu pulled on Ash's pant leg, "Pika pika. Chu pika!"

The cute little electric mouse looked up at Ash then climbed his leg and went right up onto his head. Pikachu hit Ash on the head twice and pointed forward. "Pika! Pi pikachu!"

Ash smiled up at his pokémon. Pikachu had been difficult to deal with at first but now Ash and Pikachu were the best of friends. "Okay, Pikachu." Ash said, now smiling. "I'll run up and catch up with the others."

Ash jogged up to Misty's side then stepped into a stead pace keeping up with the others.

"Look who finally came to join us," Gary smirked. "Looks like he finally found the nerve to walk with the real pokémon trainers."

Arti glared at Gary the stopped in her tracks. As Gary was about to turn around she kicked hin in the knee cap. "Behave!" she snapped. "Ash has potential to be just a good of a trainer as you or me. And I swear he'll be better then you one day Gary Oak! With the way I saw you treat yer pokémon in our last battle, I'm surprised they haven't turned on you!"

Ash noticed Arti's eye were glowing red as her rage built up. _No one's ever stood up for me like this_, Ash thought, _does she really believe in me this much when she hardly knows me?_

Gary rubbed his knee and gave Arti a funny look. "Why are you sticking up for Ash? He's an insult to Pallet Town. Out of the four trainer to leave Pallet he is the worst and he alway will be! I can't wait to see the Elite Four cream him if he even makes it that far! Him and his baby pikachu!"

Pikachu took offence to Gary's comment and charged up ready to attack. "Pikachu!"

"Uh-oh.." Ash muttered, just before Pikachu thundershocked everyone. "AHHH!!! PI-KA-CHUUUUU!!! STOP!!!"

As everyone laid in a pile on the ground, Arti began to laugh. The shock had somehow missed her despite the fact she had been between Ash and Gary and Gary had been shocked too. "That little pikachu packs a powerful shock!"

Arti picked up Pikachu just as Ash was about to warn her not to. Pikachu strangely seemed to like Arti and sat down on her shoulder. "Pika pi pikachu chu!" Pikachu said happily.

Arti scritched Pikachu behind his ears and said back: "Pi pikachu pikachu chu!"

Pikachu's ears perked up in surprised and the others stared in shock.

"You can talk to pokémon?" Misty asked, holding Togepi in her arms.

Togepi reatched out to Arti and started making it's usual noises. "Togep! Togepiiii!"

"Thats odd." Brock pondered. "Togepi never wants to go to other poeple. It seems to want to go to you though..."

"Thats because you've never met Arti before," Gary snapped. "All pokémon seem to love her to death. And you should see her collection! She has at least 3 of each pokémon! I'm surprised she isn't plauged with theives all the time with her collection of dratinis, dragonairs, and other rare pokémon! Some of 'em _I_ haven't even saw before!"

"Wow!"Ash gasped, perking up. "Could we see your collection?!"

Arti laughed. "You tried to catch my prized pokémon!" She pointed to the articuno the was flying only a few metres above their heads. "But I think you're turst worth of seeing the rest. We should stop at the pokémon centre first and let your pokémon recharge. then from there we can bike to the gym. I live only a little ways from there and there is a whole area like the safari zone where I keep my pokémon. I refuse to keep them in their poké balls. It's nice to let them roam around as if they're free."

The group of trainers started off again towards the poké centre that was only a little ways away. Arti still had Pikachu on her shoulder and she was carrying on a conversation with him.

Ash walked between Brock and Misty keeping away from Gary still while Gary was just infront of him. Misty looked at Ash and poked him with her elbow in the side. "Isn't something a bit odd?" Misty whispered. "Gary seems to be acting funny and this Arti is just strange. I'd swear she was a pokémon if I didn't know better."

Ash nodded, then Brock jumped into the conversation. "Hmm, I think I know why Gary is acting funny." he whispered to the others. "With the way he's acting I think he might like Arti..."

"WHAT?!?!" Ash screamed freaking out. "BROCK! What are you talking about?!?!"

***

Unknown to the trainers below, Team Rocket floated above in their Meowth shaped hot air balloon. Jessie and James looked over the side of the balloon peering at the situation below.

"To protect the world from devistation!" Jessie begain.

"To unite all people within our nation!" James continued.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Will you two knock it off!" Meowth jumped in scratching both Jessie and James across their faces. Meowth crossed his arms and smiled. "We're here after Pikachu, remember? You can recite you're little intro once we actually go to fight!"

"Oooh, what's that?" James asked, looking over the side.

"Huh?"

Jessie looked over too only to come across Arti's Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, and another 2 bird pokémon that neither of team rocket had saw before.

"An articuno, a zapdos, and a moltres!" Jessie exclaimed, smiling widely. "The boss would love to have all three of the legendary birds! But I have no idea what thos other two things are..."

Meowth jumped up onto Jessie and James' backs and looked over with them. "Meow! We've hit the jackpot now!"

Under the added weight of Meowth and the distance they had all been leaning out over the side of the balloon, Team Rocket suddenly found itself falling to towards the gound "at the speed of light".

***

"What are you yelling about now, Ash?" Gary snorted. "You always have to make a sceen."

"Uh, well, er, uh..." Ash stammered.

Arti cooed like a bird and everyone looked at her to see her looking up. Her bird pokémon were going crazy. Then, they all hear something.

"Is someone up there?" Brock pondered.

"That sound... It seems familiar..." Misty wondered.

"It's Team Rocket!" Ash yelled as the Rockets suddenly came into view and made a "smashing" intrance by slamming into the ground.

"Team Rocket...?" Arti asked, bewildered. "Who...?

Gary snorted. "Team Rocket? I ran into a few of their members before. I'll handle them."

Gary pulled a poké ball from his belt before anyone could object and he threw it out, "Go, Ivysaur!"

_Was bulbasaur Gary's first pokémon,_ Ash idily wondered. _This is the second time he's used Ivysaur..._

"Ha ha ha! An Ivysaur!" Jessie laughed. "Go, Arbok!"

"Go, Weezing!"

Arbok and Weezing came from their poké balls and imediatly attacked the ivysaur. Before Gary could call out an attack Weezing tackled Ivysaur then Arbok used wrap then slamed him into the ground.

"Ivysaur!" Gary cried out.

Arti's eyes again began to glow and her birds could be heard flying off as if being told to get away. She grabbed a poké ball and threw it out the whole time looking as if she was in a trance. "I choose Mew!"

"MEW?" Ash, Misty, and Brock yelled, Ash had been taken aback by a lot of things today but seeing a real mew was the biggest shock of the day.

Arti didn't say anything but Mew looked to her and nodded. She was still in a trance-like state and was only focused on the battle infront of her.

"Another rare pokémon?" James blurted. "The boss is going to adore us for this! And mews are almost imposible to find!!!"

"Arbok! Glare!" Jessie called.

"Weezing, sludge attack!" James yelled.

Mew followed Arti's trance-likeness and started to glow.

Ash grabbed a poké ball and was about to trow it but Brock caught his arm. "Mew is the most powerful pokémon ever seen. Arti and mew can-"

"But she isn't telling it to attack!" Ash protested.

Just ash Ash finished Arbok and Weezing hard begun to attack. "No!" he cried. "Go, Pidgeotto!"

Ash threw the poké ball but Pidgeotto wouldn't come out. "Huh?" Ash wondered, puzzled.

Mew started to glow brighter and as Arbok and Weezing got closer he snapped out of his trance and attacked.

"About time," James smirked. "I thought it was sleeping."

"Meeew!" Mew screeched.

Arbok and Weezing dropped to the ground in pain the were thrown into the air. Jessie, James, and Meowth suddenly were floating then sent off into the sky and over the horizon.

"Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again!!!" The called back, then disappeared from site.

Arti fell to the ground unconcious . The mew ran to her side and looked to see if it could help. "Mew?"

Gary dropped to the ground at Arti's side and proped her up in his arms. "Arti?" he said tapping her cheek. "Arti, are you okay?"

Ash and the others gathered around. The people of the town were coming out of houses to see what was going on by now and with the crowd came the police.

"All right, move on!" Officer Jenny yelled to the gathering crowd. "Go back to your homes!"

Gary was still trying to wake Arti up without success when Jenny came over. "All right you four. What did you do to her? I know it must be you cause there isn't anyone else here."

"We didn't do it!" Misty replied. "She was battling Team Rocket and she just collapsed."

"Where is this Team Rocket then?" Jenny demanded.

Everyone stopped and looked down. _Some one crying...? _Ash though.

Gary looked up and he was in fact crying. "Please." Gary pleaded. "Get her to a hospital or something. She needs help!"

Ash pinched himself making sure he was awake. too many things were happening all to once that were out of character and place for it to be real. Ash watched as Jenny let Gary on her bike with Arti.

"You three stay here untill I get back!" Jenny ordered.

They all solomly nodded and Ash looked down at Pikachu. Pikachu looked as if he ready to cry too. Ash held back tears of his own as he found himself rubbing the place he'd pinched only a moment ago. Everything was real. No matter how unreal it seemed.


	3. Birds of a Feather Part 3

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Three:

"This is a hospital for people. You pokémon aren't allowed in here!" a doctor yelled at a pikachu, a vulpix, an eevee, and a dratini that were at the front door banging on it to get in.

The little pikachu pulled down it's lower eye lid and stuck out its tongue. He and the others scooted into the hospital between the doctors legs and started running around looking for something/someone.

"Hey!" the doctor yelled. "Get back here!"

Just as the doctor took chase to the "baby" pokémon one of the gym's Jr. Trainers came running in the door breathing heavily. "Pikapi! Vulpixie! Eevee! Tiniti! Come back here!!!" he called after the pokémon.

***

Gary sat alone in the waiting room of the hospital with his head in his hands. The people at the hospital had no idea what had happened to Arti. Everything seemed normal they had said but still she wouldn't "wake up". Ash and the others had been waiting with him for a while before but they had gone out to the Poké Centre for a bit. Ash had half explain that Jenny only wanted to ask questions of what had happened when she had told thm to stay put, but Gary was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to hear Ash's explination, what little there was of one anyhow.

Just as Gary was about to find one of the nurses and ask if he could go see Arti Tiniti dropped into his arms. She'd came "running" up behind him and somehow hopped up high enough to jump over him and land as she did.

"Tiniti?" Gary asked.

Suddenly the other pokémon came running in that had entred the hospital before and crowded about Gary. Pikapi scrambled his way to Gary's head while Vulpixie and Eevee each took claim to a shoulder. Under the added weight Gary feel back into the seat he was in before and sighed.

"How did all of you get in here?" he asked, not seeming his normal "mean" self. "And how did you know Me and Arti were here?"

Pikapi started waving his paws about and rambling out and explination but Gary had no idea what the little pokémon was saying.

Pikapi, unlike most pikachu, had white paws and floppy long ears that didn't stick up like they should. He was much smaller too but part of that was because of him only being a baby. All of the assembled pokémon were babies too. Tiniti was smaller then most dratini and wasn't the right color blue. she was too light of a color. Vulpixie was a different shade of red and only had four tails since she hadn't matured anout to have six. And finally, there was Eevee, he was a scruffy looking critter. His fur was shaggy and some of it hung down in his eyes, and his tail was so fluffy it dragged on the ground when he ran.

Gary pick Pikapi off of his head as best he could with Tiniti in his arms and set him on his lap with the dratini. "You came to see Arti, I know, but how did you know she was here?"

Pikapi stopped and looked as if he was thinking. Suddenly he perked up and put his paws up to his head, one on each side, and looked as if he was thinking hard. Gary had no idea what Pikapi was trying to say.

"Meeew?"

Gary looked under the chair where Mew had been sleeping. The psychic pokémon stretched then scampered out and hopped on the seat beside Gary. "Mew meeew?" Mew seemed to be asking something.

Gary dropped the pokémon in his arms and grabbed his head. "All this pokémon babble is driving me nuts!!!"

"Maybe if you talked with your pokémon more you wouldn't have this problem," Ash suggested as he and Pikachu walked in the waiting room. "I understand my pokémon perfectly fine cause I talk to Pikachu and the others all the time!"

Gary rolled his eyes. "You talk to em cause they're the only ones that will listen most likely."

Ash dropped to the ground moaning then snapped back up shaking his fist. "Thats not true!" he hollored. "Why are you so mean anyways, Gary? You used to be my friend and then one day you started being mean and I was suddenly your rival!"

Gary was about to yell back but stopped before he got even a sound out, he was recalling all the things that had happened with him and Ash when they were younger, they had been friends, but that all stopped one day...

"Oh, you're just jealous I'm a better trainer then you!" Gary finally snapped. "You make it out to be my fault we're not friends when it's probably yours. Hell, you was never a friend of mine anyways."

Ash was drawn aback. How could Gary say that after the past they'd had together? They had been friends, Ash knew Gary was hiding something but he had no idea how to figgure out what that was.

One of the nurses walked in the room smiling. "If you'd like- oh! what are all these pokémon doing here?!"

Gary set the pokémon on the floor and stood up. "Is Arti awake yet?" he asked, looking hopeful and ignoring the nurse's question altogether.

The nurse shook her head. "Not yet, but I was about to say you could go see her if you'd like, but these pokémon aren't allowed in. Would you please put them in their poké balls!"

Gary looked at the pokémon who were all looking innocent and cute. "But... they're not _my_ pokémon. They're Arti's 'babies', as she calls em."

Ash snorted and held back a laugh. Gary glared at Ash and simply picked up Tiniti since she couldn't really walk on her own. "The pokémon are coming in too," Gary said. "I don't care what you say."

Gary strode past the nurse and Ash with Arti's pokémon in tow close by.

***

"Mew? Meeew?"

Mew tapped on Arti's head while sitting on the pillow beside her. Mew was worried about Arti even more then the others. He thought it was his fault that all this happened. He was the pokémon that she had picked and that had "linked" with durring battle. Pikapi sat on the other side of her head sleeping and cuddling up close. Eevee was sitting on Arti's stomach with Vulpixie while Tiniti was wrapped around Gary's shoulders. Gary sighed and stood up to stretch, he'd been waiting for Arti to wake up for hours now. He was starting to get even more worried then he was to start with.

"There they are!"

Gary's head snapped around and he came face to face with the jr. trainer that had been chasing the pokémon before. The trainer pulled Tiniti off of Gary's shoulders and gave Gary a dirty look. "Pokémon thief!" the trainer yelled.

Gary punched the person and took the frightened dratini back putting it where she'd been before. "I'm no theif you dult! I was at the gym only a while back and right now I'm looking after the pokémon that YOU'RE supposed to be looking after!"

The trainer shook his fist at Gary and started to growl. "Why you..!"

"Dratiniti!!!" Tiniti yelled and paralized the trainer with a thunder wave.

The other pokémon snapped up and turned to look at what was going on. Eevee jumped off of Arti and to the floor where the trainer was laying on the floor half dead. "Weee?" he "asked" licking the trainer's face.

Just as Pikapi was about to hop down to the floor he stopped and twitched his ears. he looked back at Arti then sat on her cheast. "Pika? Pika pikachu pi?"

Everyone looked over and amazingly Arti was starting to wake up. Or more, she was awake already. She had somehow, in only a few seconds, had he eyes snap open and she had pushed herself up into a siting position with Vulpixie, Pikapi, and Mew all cuddling upto her in anyway they could.

"Arti!" Gary exclaimed, then practically tackled her right off the other side of the bed. "You're finally awake!"

Arti blinked twice as she was being crushed in Gary's grip. "What's with you Oak?!" she exclaimed, pulling away. "Oh, I get it. Sigh, you're glad I'm 'alive' so you can challenge me again to get my badge. Well, if that's all yer happy to see me over you're very selfcentred!"

"No!" Gary said, trying to think of a way to explain everything. "Thats not it at all! It's just that... er, uuuhh..."

Tiniti wiggled off of Gary's shoulders and onto Arti's. "Tini!" she called out and pointed her tail to where the jr trainer was laying with a black eye.

"Uhhh, Gary, what did you do to Chris...?" Arti asked as she jumped to her feet with five pokémon hanging off of her. "Looks like you tried to kill him..."

Gary smirked. "He just wandered into the way of my fist?"

Arti smirked back and went over to the window. She opened it and jumped onto the window's edge looking as if she was to jump.

"Arti...?" Gary asked. "What are you doing?! Get back here!!"

Gary jumped at Arti to stop her from jumping but he was too late. With her pokémon clinging to her Arti was on a direct course to hit the ground. "ARTI!!!" Gary screamed out as he was half out the window himself, leaning out to see what was going on.

Suddenly one of Arti's birds swooped in under her and caught her. Arti patted the bird and waved up to Gary who looked ready to faint. "Hey! Gary! Jump on down here! I'll get Houou to catch you!"

_Houou...?_ Gary though. _Is that a nickname for one of her birds or a new pokemon?_

Gary pulled his pokédex from his pocket and check it. "Houou, a flying pokémon. No further data avalible on this pokémon."

_Well, Houou isn't the pokémon she's riding so it must be another. And come to think of it, I've never seen a bird like the one she's on now, _Gary's thoughts continued on as he absently pointed his pokédex at Arti's bird.

"No data on this pokémon." pokédex recited.

"Gary!!!" Arti called. "Jump already!"

Gary sighed and closed his eyes. "Here goes nothing..."

Gary leaped from the window just as one of the Nurses walked by the room he and Arti had been in. She gasped and fainted and Gary pulmeted to the ground. Gary suddenly found himself being sweeped upward as a bird caught him and flew him up to where Arti was.

"Told ya," Arti grined, sticking her tongue out.

Gary petted the bird he was sitting on looking a bit scared. He'd never _rode_ a bird like this before. And hell knows he'd never saw a houou before! The two bird glided down to the ground and the houou let Gary off while the other, yet to be named, bird let Arti and her "babies" off. Arti cuddled her dratini then handed her to Gary. "Here, she seems to like you." Arti pointed out as the dratini was dropped into Gary's arm.

Pikapi scampered onto Arti's head while Vulpixie took over one shoulder and Mew the other. Eevee sat on the ground between Arti and Gary and yipped. He didn't want to be carried, he was acting like a "big boy" and walking on his own.

Tiniti wrapped around Gary and rubbed her cheek against his. "Tiiiiniiiii..." she cooed.

Gary started to blush and held perfectly still. Only his eyes moved and they were looking right at Arti right now. "Er, help?" he asked as the dratini suddenlt found her way down his shirt. "AHHH!! GET IT OUT!!!"

Arti fell over, litterally, laughing. Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were just coming along and came just in time to see Tiniti go down Gary shirt. Ash and Brock put their hands over their mouths trying not to laugh and Misty just covered her eyes and turned away.

After Gary stopped waving his arms about and causing a sceen he still had the dratini in his shirt. He snorted out air through his nose and looked at Arti. "Your pokémon. Get it out." he said simply. Gary was so mad at that point he'd said it without realizing what he was saying.

Arti was now sitting up and stopped laughing. She blinked twice and turned to look at the others then to Gary. "Lemme see, you WANT me to..." She started to snicker again. "Reach down yer shirt, or up, pending on where Tiniti is, and fish around for..."

She couldn't hold it any longer. and neither could Ash or Brock, all three of them broke into laughter all over again while Gary took his turn to flush. He snapped out and whapped Ash and Brock over the head as hard as he could then turning back to Arti. "Well, can't you _call_ it out? I mean... Is there another way without... y'know..."

Arti pulled up the sleeves of her shirt and shook her head, all the long maintaining a devilish look. She walked up to Gary, who was looking extreamly nervous and looked him in the eyes. "Sorry," she said with an evil smile. "But the only way is to pull her out. But I'm NOT doing that here. Let's go to my place... where we don't have all these, achem, **spectators**."

Arti looked around as another group of towns people had started to gather. As the people left she shook her head. "This has been the WORST day of my life. Why don't we all, and I'll warn you now no fighting tolerated, go to my place."

"Sure!" Ash's group all chimed in.

"As long as you get this dratini off of me," Gary complained.

Pikapi lead the way to Arti's house followed by Pikachu who was walking more beside him talking then behind.

Gary was again at Arti's side while Ash's group trailed back a bit. Gary elbowed Arti in the ribs to get her attention. "When we get to your place you've got some explaining to do." he said. "I got a few questions about some wierd happenings..."

Arti half nodded but looked absently away. Gary noticed when ever he asked Arti something she either looked away or changed the subject. Even more so now then she did when they first met. It was obvious she was hiding _something_, but Gary had no idea what it might be.


	4. Birds of a Feather Part 4

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Four:

As soon as Arti and Gary entred her house she dragged him right into her room. Ash, Misty, and Brock came in the house at the same time, but Arti had ignored that they were even there. Right at the moment she was more concerned with getting Tiniti out of Gary's shirt.

"Okay," Arti grinned evilly at Gary once they were in her room. "Yer gonna have to take that shirt off so I can see where Tiniti is and how she's staying in there."

Gary's eyes widened. "Do I _have_ to?" Gary said, looking extreamly nervous. "I mean, just tell me how to get him off and I will!"

"Her," Arti corrected. "And Tiniti is stuborn... but..."

Arti trailed off and left the room for a moment. Gary let out a sigh of relief and crossed his arms. Tiniti had only been wrapping about him tighter and tighter, it didn't look like she was gonna let go anythime soon. Arti came back in the room and slammed the door behind her. She walked up to Gary and leered at him. 

"Shirt. Off. Now." she ordered.

Gary blushed and took his shirt off throwing it on the bed behind Arti. "There. Now hurry, please. This is embarrassing..."

Arti came closer and looked at how the dratini was wrapped around him. Tiniti's head and tail were in front and she was biting onto her tail so she couldn't be pulled off. Arti poked Tiniti only to have her growl and give a dirty look.

"Ack! She's getting tighter!" Gary yelped.

Arti smiled. "Dratini are weak against ice..." she pointed out with an innocent grin.

Arti slid her arms around Gary and but her hands between Tiniti and Gary's back. She'd been out and put her hands in ice before so they were freezing cold now. Tiniti's eyes popped open and she dropped to the floor she was so freaked out. Gary freaked yelling out at Arti's cold touch and both of them feel onto her bed with Gary on top.

"Uh..." Arti stammered trying to say something.

Gary blinked and the pair of them blushed. Just as they were about tountangle themselves Ash, Misty, Pikachu, and Brock burst in to see what the problem was. Again Misty covered her eyes and looked away while Ash blushed and looked at the floor and Brock looked dumbfounded.

"This isn't..." Arti started to say.

"...What it looks like..." Gary finshed face down against Arti.

Gary realized what he was doing and snapped his head up to come face to face with Arti. She was simply smiling and only had a slight redness to her cheeks. Gary blinked and managed to get up all the long wondering why she didn't freak out like he'd done.

"What exactly are you two doing?" Ash muttered, starting to finally look up from the ground.

Gary quickly snacked his shirt up and put it back on. Only a few seconds ago he'd looked totally oposit his usual meanself but he'd returned to "normal" now. "Oh shut up, Ash. Not that it's any of your concern but she was only helping get that dratini off of me."

Gary pointed to the floor where poor Tiniti was wriggling around having a fit. It was obvious she didn't like the cold with the way she was acting.

Brock suddenly looked love struck and looked over at Arti. "You can help me out any time..." he said, only to be whapped by Misty.

Arti glared at Brock. Suddenly her pikachu came along and clubbed Brock with a chicken leg it was chewing at. Pikapi then walked over to Arti and jumped on the bed and sat on her stomach smiling happily still eating.

"How do your pokémon all seem to know what you want them to do with out even telling them?" Misty asked, finally uncovering her eyes.

Arti pushed everyone out of her room and into another room that had a view of a large grassy area surrounded by woods and caves beyond that. The view showed a lot of pokémon grazing and looking as if they were in the wild. Arti motioned for everyone to sit down and seemed to be ignoring Misty.

"Well?" Misty asked, being stuborn about getting an answer.

Again Arti ignored the question but was now staring out the window. Gary tapped her shoulder and whispered something in her ear. Still, Arti didn't move although it seemed the pokémon in the fields were getting restless.

"Arti?" Ash asked. "Are you okay?"

Without warning a bird came flying at the window and stopped just before crashing. Everyone had sheilded their faces except Arti and Gary. The bird pecked at the glass as if it wanted to come in. As the others looked up they saw it was the Articuno they'd fought before that had came, once again.

Arti blinked and snapped out of her trance. She let the bird in and it waddled past her and right into another room. Ash. Misty, and Brock all made faces. They'd never saw a pokémon, or a trainer, act like Arti and her articuno.

Articuno cooed only to have Arti reply with the same coo. Pikachu twitched his ears and smiled. "Pika pipika!"

"What is it Pikachu?" Ash asked.

Pikachu wandered over to Arti and climbed onto her shoulder. as soon as he did Pikapi sprinted in with a growlithe behind him and another chicken leg in his mouth. Pikapi climbed on Arti and pertch on her other shoulder then threw the bone of the chicken leg to the growlithe. Ash and Misty looked sick as the growlithe laid down and started to chew on the bone.

"Could you tell it to leave..." Misty said with a sick voice.

Growlie picked up his bone and took off without really being told. Again Misty's point was proven, Arti's pokémon do things without being told, as if they know whats going to be said to them.

Arti stood up just as the phone started to ring. she jumped over the back of the chair and answered the call with Gary leaning over the shoulder and Ash's group in the background but not visible to the other person.

"Hello there Arti, Gary," came Professor Oak's voice over the phone. A few moments later his image appeared on the monitor. "I expected you to be gone by now Gary."

Once again Gary's arm seemed to find it's way around Arti. She looked at his hand on her shoulder and sighed.

"Well, Gramps, it seems I'm having trouble with getting my last badge." Gary said, stressing _last badge_ so that Ash could hear.

"Trouble?" Oak echoed. "You've been there for 5 days now, Gary. How many times have you tried to get this badge?"

Arti sighed. Oak was talking as if she wasn't even there... again!

Gary coughed and pointed at Arti. "Gramps, did you call for something? I mean, you called Arti not me apparently."

"Ah yes, I did call for you Arti." Oak smiled finally remembering the point of his call. "If I remember correctly you have a few rare pokémon that I've never had a cance to study before. That is if you still have them. Well, I was gonna to ask if you'd let me visit the lab up in Prussian so that I could study these pokémon of yours for a while."

"Well, I gu-" Arti begain.

"Hey! Professor Oak!" Ash called, waving from behind Arti.

"Is that Ash?" Oak asked, peering around Arti's shoulder as best he could.

Ash ran up to the phone and Pikachu jumped off of Arti to Ash leaving Pikapi on Arti's head. Pikapi pouted and played with Arti's hair.

"Ash! It's been a while! I wasn't even aware you'd heard of the new badge yet!" Oak continued.

"I wasn't until I got here." Ash explained. "I was on my way to Cinnabar when we... ummm... ran iinto some trouble."

Arti growled and let her head drop into her hands. She then sighed and stood up leaving Ash and the others to talk to Oak and catch up. Gary, knowing something was wrong, took chase to Arti only to be cut off by Articuno. The bird leered at Gary and squaked.

"Uh, nice birdy...?" Gary stammered.

Articuno blew a highpowered gust of ice cold wind and Gary then waddled on by leaving Gary half frozen. Gary shook off shaking shards of ice from his hair and followed Arti still. He guessed she was probably the same place she'd gone before while Gary'd been staying. The only problem was, the only way to get where she was most likely being blocked by one or more of her pokémon.

Gary took in a deep breath and let it out sharply. he walk up to a staircase where a group of three pokémon laid. A jolteon, a vaporeon, and a flareon. The three were currently sleeping and Gary hoped to keep it that way. He pressed his back to the wall hard and slowly began to go up the stairs. As Gary got to the third stair the vaporeon's ears twitched. Its ears then started to move about looking for a sound it had picked up but lost. Gary stayed perfectly still not even breathing waiting for the pokémon to go back to sleep. The vaporeon yawned and settled its head down. Gary sighed and continued his slow accent of the stairs going slower then he was before.

When Gary finally reached the top of the stairs he opened a door that lead to the rooftop where Arti had set up a nusery for her baby pokémon. the rooftop actually was protected by a glass ceiling and walls but unless you knew you wouldn't be able to tell.

Gary looked about the room that was set up to look like it really did out in the fields trying to find arti and sure enough he saw Pikapi sitting on her head playing around with Arti's blue hair. It looked almost as if the poor pikachu was tangled up and trying to get himself free he was burried so deep under all the hair.

"Mad again?" Gary asked, as he walk up to Arti's side then sat down beside her. Whenever Gary was alone with Arti his mean side seemed to totally disappear, but as soon as Ash or someone else came into the picture he turned back to his usual self.

Arti didn't really reply but she put her arms around Gary and sighed while burring her face against him. Gary was taken back for a minute then smiled and held her closely. "I'll take that as a no comment." he said, brushing he hair from her face.

Pikapi, who was still partly on Arti's head, looked at Gary with a dirty look. The baby pikachu stretched up untill he was nose to nose with Gary then shocked him as hard as he could getting Arti along with him.

Gary fell backwards with Arti on top of him. "Pikapi..." Arti groaned. "You have this bad habit of killing a mood..."

Pikapi smiled triumpantly and bounced off of Arti's head wandering to another part of the room. Arti looked up to see Gary looking at her. This time she started to blush leaving Gary with the smile on his face.

"Uh.." Arti said fumbling for something to say.

Gary kissed Arti on her forehead. "I guess this time we won't have anyone coming along, eh?"

Arti blushed more and laid her head down agaisnt Gary. She still couldn't get anything out but at this point she desided she'd only say something wrong. _I'm not gonna risk ruinung the moment_, she thought, closing her eyes and cuddling up tightly to Gary. Before Arti realized what was happening she found herself drifting off asleep and for the first time in a while she actually felt wanted.


	5. Birds of a Feather Part 5

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Five:

As Gary began to wake up he heard a voice calling out. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep but found himself staring up at the moon high in the sky. The voice started getting loud but he still couldn't make them out clearly. As he was about the get up he head a noise and looked down to see Arti still cuddled up to him. He'd forgotten she was even with him.

Gary sighed and got out from under Arti trying not to wake her up only to have that plan backfire. As soon as Gary moved he was attacked but something/someone that come flying out from the bushes in the nursery. He fell flat on his ass and realized Tiniti was again wrapped around him, only this time on the outside of his clothes.

Gary slapped the dratini and ripped her off before she got a good grip around him.

"I dunno what your problem is but STOP bothering me!" Gary said trying to whisper but still seem strict at the same time.

Tiniti slinked off whimpering leaving Gary alone with Arti once again. He tapped her shoulder to wake her up but she looked sound asleep.

Gary started to walk towards the door to downstairs where the sound of someone calling was coming from but it was still to muffled. He opened the door to go downstairs only to meet an angry pokémon that barked at him then growled looking as if it was going to foam at the mouth any moment.

Gary slammed the door and held it shut, waking Arti up. She snapped right up and looked around quickly to see what was going on. "Wha'.." she started to ask a question only to be cut off by a yawn. "Wha's goin' on?"

Gary laughed nevously, "One of your pokémon seems to want to eat me out there."

Arti raised an eyebrow and stood up. She walked over the the door and opened it just as the voices started calling out again, this time clearer. The pokémon had calmed down after seeing Arti and jumped up licking her face. Gary promty took the oppotunity to run down the stairs and leap over Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon who were still in the way.

As soon as Gary got to the bottom of the stairs he saw a shadowed figure in the next room. _Who is that?_ Gary thought. _It doesn't look like Ash, Misty, or Brock..._

"Gary?" The voice asked.

Gary stood and blinked. He knew who it was now.

"Gramps?" Gary asked back as Arti and her pikachu came almost litterally flying down the stairs.

Arti landed with a thump on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and had Pikapi land on her head flat on his tummy.

"Talk about graceful..." Arti mused, rubbing her butt. "I gotta get them pups to move outta there..."

Arti's "pups" (Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon) all came off the stairs and came to see what was going on. Flareon sat in the middle of the group trying to light up the room even a little bit.

"I'm sorry to have came so late," Oak appologized. "I was going to leave tomorrow morning but since Gary and Ash are here I thought it best to come and visit them as well. I hope you don't mind."

Arti blinked. "Uh, no problem... I guess..."

Pikapi hopped off Arti's head and ran over to the light switch. The baby pikachu jumped up and down trying to flick the switch but he was far from even touching it. Finally aonther stray pokémon, this time a pursian, came in and turned the lights on only to have them go right back off.

"What the..?" Gary was about to ask something but stopped as two more shadows appeared in the room.

"Prepair for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

Suddenly the lights snapped on to show Jessie and James once again attacking.

"To protect the world from devistation!"

"To unite all peoples with-"

"This again?" Arti asked.

Gary nodded, "I had to live with two rockets after my pokémon and all they did was recite things like this."

Professor Oak looked a bit confussed and sidestepped out of Team Rocket's way. Jessie and James looked extreamly mad at having their speack interupted. "You twerps shut up and wait for us to finish!" Jessie snapped.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepair to fight!"

"Meowth! that's right!" Meowth chimed in as he came running in with a vacum hose.

"Uh, Jessie?" James asked. "Haven't we over used this vacum idea yet?"

"Oh, James. If it's failed all the other times it meand we didn't pull it off right. This time we've took everything into concideration. It won't fail!"

Team Rocket finally finished fighting only to see Gary and Arti each with a poké ball in hand. "Well, why don't we settle this once and for all?" Gary asked. "Pokémon battle, two on two, we win you leave..."

"But if we win you have to give us all your pokémon, right boy?" Jessie smirked evilly.

Arti smirked right back. "Sounds good to me."

"Go Arbok!"

"Go Weezing!"

Arti and Gary looked to each other and nodded.

"Go Haunter!" Gary called.

"Go Gengar!" Arti yelled.

Jessie and James freaked out at the sight of the two ghost pokémon and were too scred to tell Arbok or Weezing to attack.

"Haunter! Hypnosis!"

Haunter used it's hypnosis powers to put Arbok and Weezing asleep then it was Gengar's turn.

"Gengar! Dream Eater!"

Gengar began to draw the energy from the sleeping pokémon then stopped. he looked up at Jessie and James and smiled evilly. Gengar floated up to the Rockets and stopped as soon as he was right in their faces.

"Gengar! Gengar gengar gengar!" he yelled making faces at the rockets.

Jessie and James squealed in terror and called their pokémon back. "You win! we're leaving!!!" they screamed running off. Before they got too far they were attacked by Arti's Flareon and he sent them off in flames. "Flare flare!" the pup yipped.

"Good work!" Oak congradulated Gray and Arti. "I see you too make a good... errr..."

Oak stopped and was rendered speachless as Gary grabbed Arti and dipped her down to kiss her. Oak stared with his mouth agape. Pikapi climbed onto Oak's shoulder and looked at Gary and Arti with him only he looked mad. Pikapi then looked at Oak and pushed Oak's mouth closed for him. "Pika, pikapi kachu pika."

"Umm," Oak tried again to say something. "That's enough don't you think?"

Gary finally pulled away from Arti but still had her dipped down. She looked somewhat shocked and was blushing. Gary smiled, kissed her forehead, then pulled her back up to her feet. Arti looked continted and started to coo.

"Well, now that _that_ is over," Oak cleared his throat. "Where is Ash? I thought he'd still be here."

Art looked around for a second. "I have no idea. He was here with Misty and Brock but they seemed to have left... They might have gone to the pokécentre for the night since..."

Arti caught herself and bit her tongue as Gary looked at her with a raised eyebrow. From the look on his face he was mocking her from the situation she just got into.

"Since...?" Oak repeated.

Arti rolled her eyes. "Nothing. I might explain later."

_That was an open mouth insert, foot moment, eh, Gary?_ Arti asked telepathically.

Gary looked dumbfounded but seemed to ignore the "other voice" in his head. Oak walk over to the phone on the other side of the room. "Do you mind if I give the Poké Centre a call?" he asked.

Arti shook her head and gave Gary a push, "Move it!" she whispered, pushing him into the hall and straight into the kitchen.

As soon as they were alone Gary couldn't help but start to laugh. "You have no idea how close you were to getting us in serious trouble back there! I'd have loved to see Gramps' reaction though. He's so old he'd have probably had a heart attack though..."

Arti slapped Gary and left him dumbstruck. "Wha'...? Why'd you do that?!"

She crossed her arms and looked away. "Gary, why do you talk so mean about your grandfather? I mean, at least you have family to talk about, be it good or bad..."

Gary's mouth absently opened and Pikapi, who had just wandered in, climbed Gary's shoulder and closed his mouth for him. "Pika, pikapi kachu pika."

"You don't have _any_ family?" he asked.

Arti sighed and looked back at Gary. "Not one of my family members are alive. My mother and father were the last ones alive and they died when I was only 5..."

She kicked at the floor and sighed. Pikapi hopped onto her head and started to cry. "Pikkapi chu chu pika!" he wailed.

Gary hugged Arti from behind and was silent. He had no idea what to say.

"Well, there's my emotional/sappy moment for the year..." Arti continued, turning to face Gary. Arti wiped a tear from her eye and rested her head on Gary's shoulder. "And I just made a total fool of myself, right?"

Gary smiled. "No you never. Why don't we go see what Gramps is up to? And see where my looser rival has gotten."

Arti coughed and glared at Gary. "I told you not to talk about Ash that way."

Gary picked Arti up off her feet and carried her out to the room where Oak was, "But I can't help it. It's instinct now!"

Arti sighed and layed back in Gary's arms to take a nap. Pikapi jumped onto her tummy and sat staring evilly at Gary. It was far past obvious now Pikapi was jealous and didn't want Gary around. The pikachu yawned as Gary laid Arti down on the couch and was about the fall asleep. Pikapi decided to use his last few minutes of conciousness well and growled. "PIKAAA-PIIIII!!!!!!!"

Pikapi thundershocked Gary with all his might then laid back down as if nothing happened. Gary coughed up a puff of smoke and ignored the evil electric mouse. He walked up behind Oak who was still talking to Ash and sighed. _Maybe Arti is right..._ Gary thought._ Maybe I should start making some changes with the way I act..._

Gary began grinning and shook his head. _Nah, I'll stay the way I am. After all, there's no reason to change, right? I don't have any little kids looking up to me or anything._

Gary yawned and felt sleep taking over again. He picked up Arti again and took her to her room. Ash Pikapi was about to run in to the room, Gary slammed the door in the pokémon's face. Pikapi sat staring at the door with his mouth hung open. He was schocked, he always slept with Arti in her room.

Gary opened the door again and was down at Pikapi's level. He took one finger and closed the pikachu's mouth. "Just returning the favor," Gary smirked, then slammed the door again.


	6. Birds of a Feather Part 6

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Six:

Arti woke up with a jerk at the sound of banging on her bedroom door. She yawned then rubbed her eyes before getting up to see what the comotion was about. As Arti was about to swing he legs over the side of the bed she wacked her legs into Gary. Arti's eye widdened. She hadn't realized Gary had been with her all night!

Arti hopped over Gary and went to the door and opened it. Pikapi fell in the bedroom and layed on his back, completely tired out. Arti picked up Pikapi and closed the door. She was about to get back in bed but stopped and took a minute to look at Gary. He was still asleep but Arti didn't remember him coming in, she didn't even remember how she got in her room come to think of it.

Pikapi jumped from Arti's arms onto her bed and walked upto Gary. The pikachu sat on Gary's chest and growled. "Piiiiikaaaaaa," Pikapi growled. "CHUUUU!!!!"

Pikapi electricuted Gary not only making him wake up but jump out of bed and fall to the floor, head first. Gary rubbed his head and looked up to see Arti with a slightly pissed off look as she crossed her arms.

"Why are you here and HOW did you get in?" Arti snapped.

Gary gulped. He'd really only let himself in and hadn't _meant_ to fall asleep where he did. "Uhhh, I was an accident!" he studdered. "I meant to put you in bed and leave but... but-"

"Pika. Pikapi chu kachu pika." Pikapi grumbled looking mad. Pikapi waved his arms around as he explained then made a face at Gary.

Arti picked up Pikapi and kicked Gary in the shoulder while he was down. Pikapi had told her about Gary having came in and locking Pikapi out and purposely staying with Arti. Arti glared at Gary. "What is with you?!" she snarled.

Gary stood up holding onto his shoulder. Gary glared right back at Arti then pushed her back onto her bed. "Never mind. If you haven't clued in by n- wha'?"

Arti covered her face as if she was going to be hit but that wasn't what shocked Gary. Behind Arti was a pair of wings that looked like they belonged to an Articuno. Gary leaned closer to get a better look only to have Arti cry out like a bird and slap him with a wing. He feel on top of Arti and Pikapi just as Professor Oak flew into the room. He'd heard all of the yelling and then the articuno cry so he was wondering what was going on.

Oak's skin turned pale at the sight of Gary on top of Arti. "You two..." he started.

Oak grabbed Gary by the scruf of his neck and dragged him out of the room. "Listen here, young man," Oak snapped. "We'll have none of that. And If I see you coming onto Arti like that again I'll be sure your parents know of it."

"But- But-" Gary protested.

"What did you do to her anyway? She seemed scared to death!" Oak continued lecturing.

"I didn't do-"

"Then why was she screaming?!"

Gary pulled away from Oak's grip and turned around to face him. "Look here, Gramps! I didn't do anything! She kicked ME! She attacked ME!"

Gary turned back around and crossed his arms in a fit of rage. He sighed and looked to see Arti and Pikapi peeking out of her room. Arti looked scared to death still and Pikapi looked vengeful. The pikachu ran out and stopped in front of Gary. Gary nudged the pokémon with his foot. "Go away, y- AHH!"

Pikapi used his thunder attack and zapped Gary. Pikapi then ran up Gary's leg and bit him on the neck and thundershocked him. Gary called out in pain and pulled Pikapi off throwing him at Oak. Oak caught the pikachu in shock and fell back onto a chair with the force of being hit.

Arti came out of her room after hiding her wings again. She saw that Gary was bleeding and tried to help. She pulled Gary's hand off of the bit and looked him in the eyes calmly. Gary blinked, only a moment ago they'd been fighting but now Arti was acting as if nothing happeed. Even after Gary attacked her like he did.

Arti cooed and rubbed her hand along the bite mark. It suddenly disappeared and Gary looked Arti in the eyes and put his hand to the now healed bite. Arti cuddled close to Gary for a second and whispered: "I'm sorry I kicked you. You shouldn't have been in my room though, you know..."

Gary smiled and pulled Arti closer. "I shouldn't have slept with you, It was my-" Gary started to appologize but didn't have time to finish.

Professor Oak's eyes widened and he looked ready to faint. "You two...?" he gasped. "Good God!"

Oak had just stood up a few second before he over haerd Gary and Arti only now he found himself hitting the floor as he fainted from shock. Pikapi tapped Oak's cheek. Since the pikachu had fallen with him Pikapi was the first to get to Oak's side. Pikapi tapped Oak harder and harded until he got frustrated and thunderbolt attacked him. Oak snapped awake to see Pikapi in his face and Arti and Gary leaning over him too.

"Ooohhhhh..." Oak groaned. "What happened?"

Arti looked to Gary then Gary looked up at her. They both blushed a bit and didn't say anything.

"Hey guys!" Ash's voice called out.

Everyone looked up at the same time to see Ash and Pikachu walk in the front door. Ash stretched his arms in the air while taking a deep breath and letting it out as his arms came down. "Good day for an offical pokémon battle, eh Arti?" Ash hinted off.

Oak got up off of the floor with Pikapi hanging onto his head. The little pokémon squealed happily and moved to Oak's shoulder. "Well, looks like I'll get to see some of these are pokémon of Arti's in battke finally," Oak said with a smile. "This'll be a great time to take notes on the pokémon's powers and abilities!"

Arti sighed. "If I'm gonna battle I'm gonna have to go pokémon hunting. All my pokémon, other then the babies, roam free in the fields."

Arti motioned to the window where everyone could see the fields outside like she'd shown everyone before. "I'm not even sure what pokémon I should use..."

Arti stopped to think for a minute then smiled. "Actually, I use the babies, they need the practice anyhow."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Are you _trying_ to _let_ me win?" he asked with an odd look on his face.

Gary snorted. "You're lucky, Ash. She called out her Articuno and Gengar on me in our last battle. She whooped me good, I hardly landed a hit on her!"

Ash's eyes bugged out. "Maybe I'll stop complaining," he quickly said, changing his mind.

"Pikapi!" Arti called.

The little pikachu jumped from Prof Oak's shoulder onto Arti's head and settled down. "Pika! Pikachu pi chu!"

Suddenly Arti let out a long shirll whistle and another of her pokémon arn into the room. The four tailed Vulpix, Vulpixie, ran into the room and stopped at Arti's side. "There, I've rounded up my pokémon. Now, over to the gym."

* * *

Ash stood to one side of the gym looking across to Arti. The gym had been an icy glacier before but Arti had somehow had it turn into a normal gym floor like what Ash had fought on with Lt. Surge. In a way this was going to be a similar battle, only, this time it was Pikachu against Pikapi, and not a raichu.

Arti stared back acrossed at Ash with a pokémon on each shoulder and Gary on one side and Prof Oak on the other. She had a slight smile sneak onto her face then called across the gym.

"Okay, three pokémon battle, last one with a pokémon let standing wins."

"Three?!" Ash protested. "But you only have two with-"

Arti shook her head and pointed to a poké ball resting on her belt. "I have a secret weapon incase Pikapi and Vulpixie can't cut it. So, enough with the chit-chat..."

Ash nodded. "Go, Pikachu!"

Pikachu waddled onto the battle area and charged up a but. "Chu!"

"Go, Pikapi!"

Pikapi hopped off of Arti shoulder and charged up just like Pikachu had done. "PIKAPI!" he screamed, trying to intimidate the larger pikachu.

"Pikachu! Quick Attack!"

"Pikapi! Thunder Attack!"

_Thunder Attack?!_ Ash thought. _I thought a pikachu didn't learn that until it was a really high level._

Pikachu ran as fast as he could aimming at Pikapi. Pikapi leered at Pikachu then used his Thunder Attack throwing Pikachu back and making him slam into a wall.

"Piiikaaaa!" Pikachu whimpered.

"Pikachu!" Ash called out running over to Pikachu. "Oh, Pikachu! Are you okay?" 

Pikachu laid on the floor almost unoncious. Ash picked up Pikachu and held onto him. "I'll have you to the pokémon centre as soon as this battle is done!"

"Come on already," Arti yawned. "I still have other battles to fight."

Ash pulled a poké ball fromhis belt and threw it out. "Go, Bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur appeared from his poké ball and entred the battle. "Bulba!"

"Pikapi! Return!" Arti called. Pikapi ran to Arti's side and sat down. "Go, Vulpixie!"

Vulpixie ran into battle and sat down looking cute. "Vul! Vulpixie!"

"Hmmm, it seems Ash isn't having a very good time here," Oak pointed out, "Every time he pulls out a pokémon that has the advantage Arti calls out a pokémon that has the advantage on his."

Gary nodded. "That's what she did to me. No wonder no one has gotten her badge yet. twenty out of twenty people have been beaten by her."

"Vulpixie! Flamethrower!"

"Bulbasaur! Vine Whip!"

As Bulbasaur's vines extended to whip Vulpixie he was surounded in flames. Vulpixie simply "yawned" and out came a powerful burst of flames knocking bulbasaur out of commission.

"Not Bulbasaur too!" Ash yelled. "Bulbasaur return!"

Ash took a moment to think before he sent out another pokémon. He had Squirtle, Pidgeotto, and Charizard left. There was no way he could use Charizard since he'd only rampage again. And if he used Squirtle and tried to get the advantage Arti might call Pikapi back out. Pidgeotto didn't have much of a chance with Pikapi either since Pidgeotto was weak with electric pokémon too.

Finally, Ash made a decision. "Go, Charizard!" _And please listen to me his time! I'm counting on you!_

Arti gasped as Charizard was set lose again. Oak stood in shock and Gary hid behind Arti. After his last encounter with Charizard he didn't want it to happen again.

"You actually raised a charmander to it's charizard form?" Oak asked. "Ash, I didn't think you'd ever get such a powerful pokémon!"

"Uhhhh..." Arti stammered. "Theres a down side here, Professor. That Charizard doesn't _listen_ to Ash!"

Charizard let out a breath of fire at Vulpixie almost turning the pup into charcoal. "Vulpixie!" Arti screeched! come back!

Gary was about to get in on the battle and help but Arti stopped him. "Even with a rogue pokémon, this is still an official battle," she pointed out grabbing her last poké ball.

"Go, MissingNo.!"

"MissingNo.???" Oak and Gary yelled, their eyes wide with shock.

The bird Arti had had before appeared from her poké ball and cooed. The bird was larger then the other rare birds and this one looked to be of the water type. MissingNo. spread her wings out and hissed at Charizard. Charizard replied but useing its Flamethrower attack, only, the attack had no effect on MissingNo.

"MissingNo.! Tsunami!" Arti ordered.

Everyone looked dumbstruck with seeing a whole new pokémon and seeing a whole new, never heard of attack to go with it. The missingNo. flapped its wings hard kicking up water off of its crest and tail. The water then formed a tital wave that crashed into Charizard finishing him off in one hit.

Arti let out a sigh as Ash called Charizard back. Gary and Oak were still dumbstruck and were frozen in place with the exact same expressions.

Arti marched across the gym and stopped in front of Ash. She raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face. "I thought you've have learned by now!" she screeched. "That Charizard WILL NOT listen to you! You shouldn't call out a pokémon that won't listen to you! Not only was that irresponsible, you put to other's lives in danger! A wild pokémon is NOT what I'd like to have running around tearing down my gym!"

Arti finished by turning back to to Ash. "And if you want to win so bad that you have to send out that Charizard then you don't deserve to win this badge. You're only being greedy. I see now when I stuck up for you I was wrong and you have a lot to learn about pokémon training."

Arti stormed out of the main room with Gary and her pokémon in tow and left Oak to speak with Ash.

_Looks like I'm in trouble this time,_ Ash thought, once again hanging his head. _I knew I shouldn't have used Charizard but he was my only chance... I guess Arti's right, I __**don't**__ deserve her badge..._


	7. Birds of a Feather Part 7

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Seven:

Chris, the Jr Trainer who now had a black eye, stormed into the Prussian Town gym and looked around only moving his eyes. He had his fists clentched at his sides and he looked ready to kill whatever it was he was looking for as soon as he found it.

To one side of the gym was someone he'd never saw before holding onto an injured pikachu while an old man walked towards the younger boy. Chris thought that old man was Professor Oak of Pallet but he'd only seen him once before. 

Chris stopped for a second as he heard someone in the side room where Arti usually was during the day training her "baby" pokémon. The babies were by age babies but by level they were far from that. Pikapi alone was over level 60 and knew all the attacks a normal pikachu learns by that level and then he knew more that Arti had taught him too. Arti's other babies, Tiniti, Eevee, and Vulpixie, were all ranging from level 45 to above level 55. Arti was never known as a master trainer untill she had her own gym and people found out how good of a trainer she was after battling her.

Chris walked over to the door leading to Arti's training room and opened it without even knocking. As the door was opened Chris's eyes looked as if they were going to turn red with rage. He locked onto Gary who was standing back-to and started to growl.

"YOU!" Chris yelled."You're the one that attacked me!"

Gary turned around. Arti had left for a bit and Gary was looking after the charcoal-like Vulpixie. Vulpixie yipped for attention but Gary ignored her as he locked eyes with Chris.

"You again?" Gary snorted. "I thought you'd have learned by now I'm NOT a pokémon theif and I'm only here cause I'm trying to get Arti's badge. What a looser you are. Some Jr Trainer!"

Chris looked as if he was going to go up in flames at any moment. "ALRIGHT!!! That's all I'm going to take!" Chris pulled a poké ball from his belt and smirked. "Pokémon battle! i'll show you who's the looser!"

Gary yawned and pulled a poké ball from his belt. Gary was acting completely uninterested but went along with it anyway.

"Go, Beedrill!" Chris called, throwing his poké ball.

Gary sat back down with Vulpixie and storked her fur a bit ignoring the fight. The beedrill came flying at Gary's head, stinger pointed out at him and ready to strike. Still, Gary ignored it. As the beedrill got to withing only metres of Gary, Gary finally reacted. He picked up Vulpixie, moved aside, and watched beedrill zoom by at top speed and ram into a wall getting it's stinger stuck before Gary had even threw out his poké ball.

Chris began to growl he was so mad. "You're SUPPOSED to use YOUR pokémon to BATTLE my pokémon!!!" he hollored.

Vulpixie whimpered at all the yelling and sunk down close to Gary. Gary chucked his poké ball over his shoulder and yawned again. "Go, poké ball..." he mutter unenthousiastically.

Chris called back his beedrill and looked at the poké ball Gary threw laying in the middle of the floor. Chris grabbed another of his poké balls.

"Go, Vaporeon!"

Vaporeon came from his poké ball and looked confused. He poked at Gary's poké ball with a paw then backed off a bit. The poké ball snapped open and out popped an Alakazam.Vaporeon yipped and fell backwards as he tried to get away. The alakazam stared down the vaporeon but didn't attack.

"Vaporeon! Water Gun!"

Before Vaporeon attacked a pair of vines whipped out from mowhere attacking and knocking Vaporeon aside. Suddenly a pokémon resembling a flareon ran into the room. It was a dark jade color with a wighter green mane and tail that were made of leaves. The grass type pokémon growled at Vaporeon.

"Fol, foleon!" he barked.

Another strange pokémon came running out after Foleon and tackled Alakazam. The second pokémon looked like the first only he was a dark navy color with a lighter blue mane, and on his body, face, and legs he had a star and moon pattern covering him.

The second pokémon started to growl then he let lose a burst of energy.

"Galaxeon!" he yelped as he used metronome then explosion.

Everyone was thrown back just as Arti was about to entre the room.. Arti leapt into the air to catch her injured vulpix but as she did she too was thrown back from the blast. Chris had been throw back into the main gym room with his Vaporeon while Arti, Gary and their pokémon were thrown to the oposit side hitting a wall.

Gary was first to hit the wall followed by Arti then Vulpixie. Foleon hit into the floor and rolled until he slammed into the wall butside Arti and Gary. Alakazam had teleported just after the blast and now reappeared waiting to be called back to his poké ball.

Gary shock his head trying to clear it then called his pokémon back. He looked up to where Galaxeon was still standing wagging his tail and groaned.

"Galax!" the pup yelped, pouncing Arti.

Galaxeon licked Arti's hand trying to get her attention but Arti had been knocked unconcious when she hit into Gary. Galaxeon whimpered and laid on the floor beside Arti then set his head on her hand.

Gary rubbed the side of his head where he'd slammed into the wall. He pulled his hand down as a shape pain ripped though where he'd touched then looked at his hand. Blood covered his hand and all along the side of his head. At the sight of the blood Gary screamed and tried to jump up but was held down under Arti's weight.

Professor Oak ran into the room at the sound of the explosion and Gary's yelling. "What happened?!" Oak asked, looking about the room that now looked like a war zone.

Arti began to wake up and let herself fall sideways onto the floor with her injured Vulpixie. Vulpixie whimpered and jumped away only to settle down right by Arti's head. Galaxeon whimpered and laid down by Foleon with his tail between his legs.

"Galaxeon..." Arti murmured.How many times do you have to **over** do it before you learn not to?! Just learn to **stop** killing everyone and **just** kill the **enemy** next time!" From the way Arti was yelling it was obvious Galaxeon often over did his attacks.

The pup whimpered and scooted off with his tail still between his legs. Foleon yipped and limped off after the other pup.

"Hold still!" Oak snapped as he tried to stop Gary from squirming about.

"But it hurts, Gramps!" Gary protested flailing his arms about trying to keep Oak away.

Oak stepped back and crossed his arms. "Well, either way you'll have to go to the hospital and get that cut looked after. Even from here it looks pretty bad."

Arti sat up groaning and pulled the potuin she'd meant to give Vulpixie out of her pocket. She sprayed the potion on the pokémon and soon after Vulpixie looked better.

"Ooooww..." Gary wailed, holding his head. "Why can't there be potions like that for humans?!"

Arti picked up Vulpixie and set the fire fox on her head. Arti smiled at Gary. "Well, I can do the next best thing..." she said while rubbing Vulpixie.

Oak raised an eyebrow at Arti as she walked up to Gary and looked over his cut. She smiled and shook her head. "It's really not that bad..."

Arti put a hand by the slash and her hand began to glow. The cut began to close then suddenly disappeared as if it'd never been there. The only side effect was with Arti. She suddenly looked as if she was going to faint. She stumbled backwards about to fall but Professor Oak caught her.

"Arti!" Gary yelled out. "...This is the third time this happened..."

Oak looked up from Arti to Gary. "The third time? That she's healed you in some way, you mean?"

Gary shoock his head. "The first time she did something like this was with one of her pokémon, he rapidash had been caught in something and hurt itself. The second time was last night when Pikapi bit me and then again now... I've never saw anything like this before! it's as if she was part pokémon! She even has the eyes of an articuno. I hadn't noticed that until she had been standing with her articuno in one of our battles and they both game me the exact same glare... And this morning I noticed something else the same..."

Oak looked down at Arti again just in time to see her start to wake up again. Arti muttered something then her eyes snapped wide open. She screeched out like an articuno then slapped Oak as she backed into a wall looking as if she had no idea who anyone was or what was going on.

"Gary, have you got your pokédex with you?" Oak asked.

Gary reached into his pocket and fished around for a moment. He pulled the 'dex out and handed it to Oak. Oak began to point the 'dex at Arti but her atricuno came from behind and slapped the dex away with a wing. 

The bird glared down at Oak then squacked loudly making Oak and Gary cover their ears and drop to their knees in pain. Gary looked down at the pokédex witch had landed pointing in Arti's direction. On the screen it showed an articuno. With all the noise Gary couldn't hear what 'dex was reciting but he knew something was either wrong with the dex or Arti was actually some kind of articuno that had been crossed with a human.

Gary turned around to face the screeching bird and kicked it in the beak. Articuno stopped screeching but began to growl. He flapped his wings kicking up cold gusts of wind the left Oak and Gary frozen solid.

Arti hissed at the bird. Gary noticed she seemed to be coming back to "normal". It seemed as if she at least remembered who everyone was. Arti jumped into the air, over Oak and Gary, and onto Articuno's back. Articuno cooed and rubbed his cheek aganst Arti as best he could with her behind him.

"Bad birdie!" Arti scolded. "You're NOT supposed to attack Gary!"

Gary smirked as he noticed that Professor Oak hadn't been mentioned as one of the "not to be atacked".

Arti whistled and 5 pups came running into the room. Her Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Glaxeon, and Foleon all sat down waiting for orders. Although Galaxeon still looked ashamed of himself and Foleon was still limping.

"Flareon, Use yer fire to melt the ice." Arti ordered.

"FLARE!!!" Flareon yelled as he let out a burst of flames.

The fire melted the ice around Gary then around Oak only Flareon over did the flames and caught Oak's clothes on fire. Oak began to wack at the fire trying to put it out but it wasn't working. "AHH!"

"Ooops." Arti said blushing. "Vaporeon! Water Gun!"

Vaporeon put the fire out then sat back down, most of Arti's pups were perfectly trained but Galaxeon was only young and was unexperienced. He didn't know how to control some of his attacks and it made him had to control.

Arti jumped off of Articuno after hugging him then tackled Gary. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Oak was about to interupt but simply walked off. "I'll be back at your house, Arti. If you don't mind that is. I'd like to take a look at the pokémon on your reserve."

Arti absently nodded and waved Professor Oak off. "Yeah, sure... Take all the time ya need."

As soon as Oak left with Arti's pups chasing him, Gary picked up Arti. He kissed her on the forehead only to have Articuno get in his face in an angry rage. "Uuhhh..." Gary stammered, as he backed off from the bird.

Articuno snorted a breathe of cold air at Gary then stormed off. Gary was left dazed holding Arti as he watched the pissed off pokémon waddle off raging. Arti cooed and cuddled upto Gary. Gary held Arti tight then sighed. "We have to talk..." he said, then looked down at the pokédex on the floor. "My 'dex said you was an articuno, as in the pokémon. Care to explain?"

Arti blushed andlowered her head. She sighed then looked back up at Gary with her wide articuno eyes. "I'll explain..." she replied. "But can we go somewhere else?"

Vulpixie yipped and yelped wanting to jump up onto Arti's head again. No one had even noticedd the fire fox jump off of Arti's head to begin with but the little fox had been standing on the floor. Vulpixie grabbed Gary's pokédex then jumed onto Arti. "Vul!" Vulpixie yipped.

Gary set Arti on her feet with Vulpixie on her head then rubbed the fox's head as he took the pokédex from her.

"Thanks, Vulpi-" Gary started only to be cut off.

Chris had re-entred the room with another poké ball in hand. "This time you battle!" he screamed. "I won't take no for an answer!!!"


	8. Birds of a Feather Part 8

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Eight

Gary turned and locked eyes with Chris. Gary was sick of the Jr Trainer already and they'd only met the day before. He pulled a poké ball from his belt and sigh. "Fine." Gary snapped. "I don't believe in using pokémon for personal battles so we'll make this a sudden death match. One pokémon each. Loser LOSES no questions asked. No rematches. Understood?"

Gary glanced in Arti's direction an saw her looking in Chris's direction, disapointed. Gary knew she probably was too. As the gym trainer she was in control of the Jr Trainers and with the way Chris was acting he looked like he wasn't listening to his training.

Chris threw out his poké ball he'd been holding and yelled out, "Go, Charizard!" as Gary picked his pokémon.

Gary held up his poké ball and kissed it before he threw it. "Go, Wartortle!"

After Gary threw the ball Arti kicked him in the rear. "Stop kissin' yer..." Arti started only to laugh and cover her mouth. "Never mind..."

Gary feel forward a bit but caught himself. "Arti!" he snapped, turning to look at her. "What was that all about!?"

Arti waved him off. "Just ignore me and finish this fight before I finish it myself."

Gary smiled and nodded as he looked back at the battle he was in. Chris's Charizard leered down at Wartortle. In this battle Wartotle may have been a lower level but he had the advantage of water over fire. Wartotle growled at Charizard as they both waited for orders.

"Wartortle! Water Gun!"

"Charizard! Slash!"

Wartortle ran upto Charizard as if it was going to tackle the larger pokémon. Instead, he jumped into the air and threw out a gush of water on Charizard. The fire pokémon flinched from the attack and drew back before he counter attacked.

"Charizard!!" Chris yelled. "Grrr, Charizard! Flamethrower!"

Charizard growled loudly then opened it's mouth widely throwing flames at Wartortle.

"Wartortle! Dodge the flames then tackle it!"

Wartortle ducked under the flames then jumped into the air as Charizard went for a second attack. Warotrtle pulled itself inside it's shell then slammed into Charizard. Charizard feel to the floor in an unconcious heap. Chris's eyes poped open as his pokémon laid infront of him. Gary called his wartortle back then smiled as he crossed his arms.

"Give it up," Gary snorted. "You LOSE, end of story, good bye!"

Gary turned around and walked away with Arti tagging along behind.

* * *

"Your pokémon are fighting fit! Hope to see yoy again!" Nurse Joy said to Ash as she handed him his poké balls and Pikachu on a tray.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu squeeled happily as he jumped onto Ash's shoulder.

"Glad to see you're feeling better!" Ash smiled as he hugged the electric mouse.

"Pika!"

Ash placed all his poké balls back on his belt, then left the poké centre to look around the town before he tried challanging Arti again. After such a defeat, Ash didn't think he had much of a chance to win. Even Arti's "baby" pokémon were at such high levels that he'd never be able to beat them with the pokémon he had now.

Ash sighed as he wandered into a park near the town limits. Pikachu jumped from Ash's head and started to walk beside him. It'd been a while now since Ash had left home. It was aready the start of autum and the leaves were changing. It was still warm out but for some reason Ash felt a cold wind sneek up. He looked up into the sky where an articuno was flying by. The bird landed on a tree branch not far away.

Ash's eyes lit up. It wasn't the same bird he'd tried to catch before, this one was smaller and had a different color blue in its feathers.

"Should we catch it, Pikachu?" Ash asked.

Pikachu sat with his arms crossed and looked away. "Pika!" he said with a sharp tone.

"I guess not..." Ash sighed, lowering his head. "For all I know it's another of Arti's pokémon and she'll kill me if I catch it..."

"Pikachu." Pikachu nodded.

Ash continued walking through the park with his head hung. Pikachu skipped along beside him singing to himself. Ash sighed and stopped as they came to a bridge that crossed over a small river. He leaned against the rail and looked down into the water. Pikachu jumped back onto Ash's shoulder and lifted Ash's hat so that he could see his eyes.

"Pika...? Pika kachu?"

Ash looked up at Pikachu. "I'm okay... Just thinking." he replied.

Ash looked back down at the water. All he could hear ringing in his head was Gary's voice, _Ash is such a looser!_

No matter what Ash did Gary always found a way to insult him. Arti had stuck up for him at first but after the last incedent with Charizard, he didn't blame her for gving up on him.

"C'mon, Pikachu. Let's go find Brock and Misty and move on to Cinnabar..."

* * *

With Arti at his side, Gary walked out into her pokémon reserve. After finishing up at the town's gym, they'd returned to Arti's house originally to find Professor Oak but he'd gone missing. Arti had suggested they go look for him on the reserve, although, at first, Gary had declined saying Oak would show up somewhere later on. Finally, Gary desided they might as well go looking for him.

Arti cooed and clung onto Gary's arm. He looked over at her a bit shocked at first then simply smiled.

"You still have to explain to me why my pokédex said you're an articuno and why you look at least partly like one," Gary pointed out as he stopped and turned to Arti.

Arti stepped back, looking away. It was obvious she didn't really want to explain everything. She walked past Gary and flopped onto the ground under a tree where a pair of pidgeys were. Arti picked up one of the pidgeys and sighed. "Might as well have a seat." she said while preening the bird's feathers. "This might take a bit to explain..."

Gary sat down beside Arti and leaned back against the tree. "Explain away." he said as the other pidgey hopped on his lap looking mad and wanting his feathers preened too.

Gary was about to bat the bird away but Arti took both birds and cuddled them. "Well, I guess I'm gonna have to start way back when I was only 3." she started. "That's when my articuno comes into the picture. My parents caught him for an experiment they were doing on gene splicing different pokémon here in the Prussian Poké Lab. My parents were hated by many pokémon researchers, trainers, everyone you might say, for what they were doing. Some of the pokémon they'd experimented on were horribly deformed and didn't live for more then a few days. The ones that looked "normal" often had other problems that weren't noticed until it was too late and they had to be 'disposed of'."

Arti paused for a moment to set the now sleeping pidgeys onto the grass beside her. Gary had noticed from the tone in her voice she too hated her parents for what they did. Even the way she refused to make eye contact while talking backed the theory up.

Finally, Arti continued: "Since Articuno was such a rare pokémon my parents didn't want to experiment on him as soon as they caught him. He was only young when he was caught anyway. By the time I was five I'd grown quite attached to my articuno. He was the only one I could hang around with since all the other kid's parent wouldn't let their kids near me. I was 'The mad scientist's kid'. No one was aloud near me.

"When my parent's finally decided to use Articuno for an experiment the whole town was in an uproar. No just the town but everyone you could imagine was pissed off. My parents had been pushing the limits for quite some time but the articuno experiment was a step too far. I refused to let them hurt my bird but they didn't listen to me. They were always more interested in their experiments and other things.

"Finally, a few days before they were to gene splice my articuno with another pokémon, they'd heard of something that Pokémon HQ was planning on doing to stop them. The HQ planned to attack and distroy the lab and free the pokémon that were trapped. With that news my parents changed the date of the gene splicing to that very night. I begged them not to hurt my pokémon but they still ignored me and pushed me aside.

"That night they had everything set up and were about to start when the attack happened. My parents didn't know _when_ this attack was to have happened and if they'd have known they'd have probably done the experiment the moment they knew of the attack. Thankfully they hadn't started when that attack happened and I tried to free my articuno. Durning the battle, the machine that spliced the pokémon's genes was set off while I was trying to free Articuno. I ended up being part of the experiment myself then. My articuno's genes and that of the other pokémon was spliced into mine. At the time there were no obvious changes and everyone thought the machine had malfuntioned.

"When everything was over my parents had been killed from the battle and most of the other 'mad scientist' were taken to prison. I was left with my articuno since no one had even noticed I was there. The same as always.

"Articuno and I left the ruins of the lab just after the comotion quieted down. We'd hid in the fields from everyone until morning. I still didn't have any major side effects of the splicing until a few days later, my eyes changed and I'd grown a tail and wings like an articuno. I even understood all pokémon perfectly and could reply in their own languages..."

Arti finally looked away from the pidgeys and looked Gary in the eyes. She was almost crying, but that was to be expected after having to recall such a horrible past. Gary pulled Arti back in his arms and kissed her on the forehead.

Arti cooed, waking the pidgeys and causing them to fly off. She spread out her wings and her tail became visible. Arti cuddled Gary causing him to slide onto his back. He groaned as his head smacked into the ground and pulled Arti down with him.

"You'll pay for that!" Gary mused, flipping Arti onto her back.

Arti squeeled, laughing. Gary smiled down at her and kissed her again.

"What are you doing?" Arti asked wide eyed as Gary kissed her neck.

"You'll se-" Gary started, but stopped as soon as he heard a rustling in the bushes near by.

Gary looked up just in time to see Professor Oak come from the bushes. Gary's skin paled as he locked eyes with his grandfather. Oak looked as if he was going to grab Gary by the ear and drag him off Arti then go kill him somewhere. Arti chirped and covered her head as if she was going to be hit.

"_**What**_ do you two think you're doing?!" Oak hollored.

"Uh, uh," Gary stammered. "W-we weren't doing anything!" _YET_, Gary silently added.

Gary looked down at Arti, who was scared to death, the suddenly seemed to have a change of heart. "Look, Gramps, it's not like you can run my life anyways. So why don't you just get moving on and go look at some pokémon!!!"

Oak drew back in shock. "How dare you snap at me like that!"

Oak grabbed Gary by the arm and dragged him to his feet. As he did, Arti jumped to her feet and began to growl. She looked as if she was going to attack but leapt into the air flying instead. Oak gasped and let go of Gary as he tried to keep watch of Arti. Gary took off running from Oak and was picked up off of the ground by Arti as she swooped down and grabbed him. Oak was left yelling from the ground as Arti and Gary got away without any more trouble.


	9. Birds of a Feather Part 9

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Nine

Oak returned to Arti's house after spending most of the day out on the reserve studying a flock of bird pokémon he'd never saw before. He'd made note to ask Arti the name later but after the encounter he'd had with her and Gary he didn't think they'd show back at the house until late in hopes of avoiding him.

Oak sighed and poured himself a cup of tea. He walked into the living room where Ash, Misty and Brock were all fighting with Arti's Growlithe for couch space. The puppy pokémon was laying back, taking up all the space and grinning about it. "Grrrrowwwwl!" he bellowed and wiggled about getting comfy.

Oak sipped his tea and walked past the fight to look out the glass doors, out into the reserve. He could loudly hear Ash yelling at the puppy to move while Misty screamed about Growlithe licking her. Brock was trying to calm Misty down but it wasn't working since her screams were getting louder.

"You should probably find another place to sit," Oak pointed out still sipping at his tea. "Growlithe are very teritorial and this one seems like he's not moving. He sees that couch as his teritory and he'll defend it as he sees fit."

Suddenly everything was quiet but Oak continued to look out into the fields. Ash muttered something then the three could be heard flopping onto the floor.

"So, who has the remote to the TV?" Misty asked.

Another pause was heard then Ash wailed something. Oak turned to see what the trouble was only to see Ash laying with his legs twitching in the air. Oak was about to ask what had happened but saw Misty fighting with Growlithe again. The puppy had the remote in his mouth and was playing tug-o-war with Misty for it.

"Give it here you dumb mutt!" Misty yelled.

Growlithe growled louder and louder with each tug then he finally let go. His eyes showed the rage he was in.

"Is he..?" Misty started.

"He's gonna use his flamethrower attack! RUN!!!" yelled Brock.

Ash, Misty, and Brock ran out of the room but, Growlithe didn't follow. He simply hopped from the couch, picked up the remote in his mouth, then returned to his spot. Oak walked over to the couch and sat own with Growlithe and rub the puppy's head.

"They'll never learn..." Oak sighed as he took the remote from Growlithe. "You just wanted to play didn't you?"

Growlithe nodded then sat up beside Oak. "Grrrowwwwwl!" he howled, licking Oak.

* * *

Ash, Misty, and Brock all gasped for air as they finally came to a stop. They were in a part of Arti's house they'd never saw before and were now lost. Misty looked around a bit trying to find a room she recognized but it was useless.

"We ran up a set of stairs, right?" Brock asked.

Misty nodded. "So, if we find another set of stairs we can probably find our way from there?"

Ash fell to the floor groaning. "Can we wait a bit first...? I'm exosted..."

Brock and Misty groaned and hung their heads. "Why do we bother?" Misty muttered.

* * *

Arti finally landed with Gary after getting as far away as they could from Professor Oak without leaving the pokémoon reserve. Arti dropped to the ground and sighed, face first in the grass. Gary plopped down beside her and leaned back against a tree.

"So, what do we do now?" Gary asked, looking at Arti.

Arti still layed face down and mutter something Gary couldn't make out. He was about to ask her to repeat herself but she lifted her head and answered again without being asked. "I said, 'We can go back, or stay here and hope Oak gets fed up and goes back to Pallet.'"

Gary watched as Arti let her face slam back into the ground like and oddish and sigh again. She finally rolled onto her back looking up into the sky with mud caked to her face, then closed. Gary brushed the mud off Arti's face and kissed her cheek. Her eyes snapped open and looked towards Gary.

Gary smirked expecting Arti to say something but, instead, her articuno landed behind him and picked him with a talon. Articuno growled at Gary and threw him aside as it he was a rag doll. Arti hopped up and whacked her Articuno. "Bad, baby!" she hollored.

"Uhhh.." Gary moaned, mushed into the ground like Arti had been just a little while before. "Why does that bird hate me?"

Arti helped Gary to his feet and glared at her pokémon again. "He's jealous." she simply said as the oversized bird waddled upto her and cuddled up looking pittyful.

Articuno cooed and ducked his head down making Arti get on its back. Arti was flipped upside down and over the bird's head onto its back with her legs out by the birds head. Arti layed down against her "baby" and hugged him. "See what I mean?" she asked as Articuno cooed affectionately. "He thinks I'm his."

Gary had a pissed off look come across his face. _This __**bird**__ is in love with her? I can't believe this... A __**bird**__! I've got compitetion... from a __**bird**__!!!_

Arti knocked on Gary's head. "I know what yer thinking." she smiled. "I'm psychic!"

Gary blushed crimson and looked down at the ground kicking the dirt with his foot. "So... you know..."

"Yeah, I know Articuno loves me! What of it! He thinks I'm his chick!"

Gary fell to the ground feet in the air. "I can't believe this!" he moaned, then continued to blush. "What else did you pick up when you used your psychic powers..."

Arti and Articuno leaned down and came face-to-face with Gary, both giving the same mock-look. "You mean about the 'I've got competition from a bird!!!' part?"

"Uhh... yeah, that..."

"Well, I'm not stupid. It's awfully obvious you've taken interest it me, Gary."

"'Cuno!" Articuno snapped in then whapped Gary with a wing. "Articuno! Artic, articuno!"

The bird kicked up a gust sending Gary into the air and slamed him into a rock. Arti whapped her pokémon then tried to get off it's back to see if Gary was alright. The bird lifted its wings so that Arti was stuck on unless she backflipped off and in turn she'd snap her neck.

"Articuno!" Arti pleaded. "Stop!"

The bird walked upto where Gary laid and grabbed his head in its talons. The bird started to squeeze tight crushing Gary's skull. Gray cried out in pain while Arti fought with her bird.

"Why are you doing this!" Arti screeched. "Are you really jealous of Gary...?"

Articuno growled and slung Gary side back against the rock he'd hit before. "'Cuno, Articuno." the pokémon snapped.

Articuno laid down on the ground to left Arti off then he flew off. Arti ran to Gary's side where he was half sitting holding onto his arm.

"Are you okay?" Arti asked, kneeling down.

Gary stood up with Arti's help still holding his arm. "I'm fine... I think. My arm hurts though."

Arti ran her hand along Gary's sore arm. Gary winched and pulled back cursing. "Hey, watch it!" was the only thing that wasn't a curse.

Arti lowered her head. "I'm sorry... I dunno what happened with Articuno. He never acted like this before. I think he's mad that..."

Arti cut off and turned away.

Gary put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault..."

Arti turned back to look Gary in the eyes. Gary hadn't realized it was almost dark until he noticed the setting sun behind Arti. "But I trained Articuno... I grew up with him... He always listened before... And I call myself a bird pokémon trainer..."

Gary pulled Arti close to him, cuddling her, as she started to cry. "Please, don't cry."

Arti cuddled back and let out a sharp breath. "So, are we going back?" she asked, changing the subject. "You should have your arm looked after."

Gary fell backwards to sit on the ground pulling Arti down with him. "Ah, I'll live! A little something like this is nothing! I bet if this ever happened to Ash that looser'd be crying his eyes out and making a total fool of himself, HA!"

Arti rolled here eyes and ignored Gary's atempt at making himself seem better then Ash. Gary saw the look on her face. "Hey, I didn't mean it. Just trying to lighten the mood a bit."

Arti laid back against Gary and smiled. "Stop lieing and just tell me if we're going back to the house or staying. I hate flying in the dark without Moltres to light up the way."

Gary kissed Arti's forehead. "Then we'll stay out here, away from everyone, all alone..."

"Stop hinting off about..."

"Okay, Okay!!"

"Good cause I'm not interest-"

"Yeah, yeah, get the point."

Gary and Arti were both quiet for what seemed like hours but was really minutes.

"Gary," Arti started.

"Yeah?"

"Don't sound so hopeful, I'm not changing my mind. I was going to ask you to kindly MOVE yer hand from where it's at."

Gary sighed and moved his hand only to push Arti onto her back. "There. Moved" Gary smiled.

"Hey! What are y-!"

Before Arti could finish Gary had her in a lip lock. Arti's eyes were wider then they'd ever been and her wings were stretched out at her sides, perfectly stiff.

Arti finally loosened up and her eyes went back to normal as Gary let her go. Arti cooed and smiled. "Lemme guess. Yer trying to persuade me into..."

Gary stopped Arti from talking and kissed her again. "Ooookay, thats enough..." Arti grined wrapping her arms around Gary. "Well, you might have to persuade me a _bit_ more..."

* * *

Professor Oak returned to staring out the window, with Growlithe at his side. It was past midnight now and Gary and Arti were still not back. Growlithe whimpered at Oak's side then pawed at the glass doors begging to be let out to go search for Arti. Oak kneelt down and rubbed the puppy's head. "There's nothing we can do, Growlithe. It's too dark." Oak explained. "We'll have to go look tomorrow as soon as it's light out."

Growlithe laid down at the door still whimpering. "Grrrowwwl. Grrrrowwwwwl!!"

Oak stood up and walked off leaving Growlithe by himself. "Don't worry, boy. I'm sure they're fine."

* * *

Ash beat hopelessly on a door trying to find a way out of the maze Arti called her house.

"It's useless, Ash!" Misty complained. "We can't find our way out so, we'll have to wait for someone to find us.

Ash feel to the floor on his butt and groaned. "As soon as I see that growlithe I'm gonna make sure it never chases me again!!!"

Ash slammed his fist into the door then wailed as he hopped about holding his hand.

Brock and Misty sighed and walked off. "We'll let him find his own way out." Brock decided.

"Good plan." agreed Misty, as they left Ash to take chase to them yelling.


	10. Birds of a Feather Part 10

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Ten

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Togepi were all cuddled up in a pile, asleep. After hours of wandering around aimlessly they'd stopped and desided to crash in one of the rooms they'd passed. Originally they had been spaced out, other then misty hugging Togepi, but now they laid, Brock and Ash cuddled up and Misty laying against Ash with Togepy on Misty's lap laying against her stomach.

Ash started to wake up slowly opening his eyes. As he did he realized something was wrong causing my to have his eyes pop wide open. "AHHH!!!" Ash screamed as his arms failed about in the air and he jumps up running in circles.

Misty fell backwards and Brock landed beside her causing them both to wake up startled. Misty got back into a sitting position and lean against a wall while Brock stayed on the floor. Misty rubbed her head and looked down at the still sleeping Togepi on her lap.

"Ash! What is wrong with you!" Misty hollored!

Ash stopped running about and fell back to the floor, sitting. "You didn't realize what was going on!?" he snapped still yelling.

Misty and Brock covered their ears. "Quiet down!" Brock yelled back.

"You're being loud enough to wake the dead!" added Misty.

Ash fell forward and landed face first onto the floor. He sighed then turned his head too look towards a window at the far side of the room. 

"Well, it's morning, maybe we should continue looking for a way out." Misty pointed out as she too looked out the window.

Brock nodded. "If we don't find a way out soon we might have to jump out a window."

Misty and Ash bother looked at Brock. Misty whapped him over the head with holding Togepi. "Why didn't you suggest that sooner!" she screamed. "We could have jumped out last night and then we wouldn't have had to sleep like in the room all night!!!!"

Brock rubbed the back of his head then hollored back: "We're on the third floor to this house! I didn't exactly want to break a leg hitting the ground!"

Ash's face dropped as he imagined falling to the ground and breaking both arms and legs. "Maybe we can go down a level or two first..." he suggested, smirking.

Misty growled as she put Togepi in her back pak. "C'mere!" she screeched whacking Brock and Ash then dragging then along. "I'LL find us a way out. All you two have done is make things worse!!!"

* * *

Gary work up and found himself face down in the grass. He blinked twice then pushed himself up so that he was sitting. Gary yawned at stretched. As he was in mid yawn he paused and looked around. Arti wasn't anywhere to be seen. Gary stood up and realized he didn't have his shirt on. _Oops._ he thought. _I guess I forgot to put it back on..._

Gary picked up his shirt from the ground and pulled it on over his head. "Arti!" he called out as he rearanged the sleeves. "Arti!!!"

Gary stopped to listen as he heard a rumbling sound. He turned just in time to see a cloud of dust blowing his way. Before he could get clear the cloud blew by along with a loud rumbling sounding like a stamped. Gary was left coughing and waving his arms about trying to clear the dust so he could breath. "What the hell...?"

"'Mornin', hon!"

As the dust cleared, Gary could see Arti sitting on a dodrio's back. The three headed bird cocked all of its heads to one side looking at Gary. "Drio!" one head squacked then the others followed.

"Uhh..." Gary stammered not knowing what to say. It seemed like all of Arti's pokémon other then the love sick Tiniti hated him.

"C'mon. Drio can give us a lift back to the house. it'll be faster then walking and I know my wings won't hold out for that long of a flight. They hurt like hell..." Arti cut off and blushed.

Gary walked over to her and the dodrio. "I'm not gonna say a thing." he grinned.

Arti helped Gary onto Drio's back then settled down again getting her grip onto the bird. "Hold on tight!" she said, kicking the bird lightly in the side making it take off in another cloud of dust.

Gary yelped and grabbed Arti around the waist just before he fell backwards. She blushed as she looked over her shoulder back at him. "Behave!" she winked.

Gary kissed her on the cheek. "I am behaving. You'd know if wasn't."

Arti pulled her legs up on Drio's back then stood up while the bird was running. She spread her wings out catching the wind and was lifted into the sky like a kite leaving Gary on Drio. The bird stopped running and looked up where Arti was flying. it called out as if in a panic waiting for her to come down. While Gary sat staring he didn't noticed he had started to float into the air. By the time he realized what was going on he was quite far off the ground already. Arti swooped down to where he was freaking out screaming and kicking his legs about in the air. He mad such a racket that Drio had ran off scared.

Arti hovered beside him and cooed with her head to one side. "What's wrong?" she asked. "I'm not gonna let you fall."

Gary calmed down a bit and looked down then at Arti who was flapping her wings to keep herself airborne. "But-But..."

"How am I keeping you in the air?" Arti finished. "Simple. I've got the psychic powers of a kadabra or alakazam so I can psychically hold you in the air. I had a bit of a head ache before so my powers weren't working properly. Thats why I didn't simply fly us this way back to the house."

Arti pulled her wings in behind her and they disappeared along with her tail. "See? I'm keeping myself up too."

Gary still wasn't sure of what was going on and looked horrified. He was holding perfectly, almost as if he moved he'd fall. Arti left him drop a bit causing him to freak out again and grab onto her waist. "Don't do that!" he screamed.

Arti looked down at Gary. He had his face burried against her and arms around her as tight as he could grip. "Let go." she ordered. "Now."

Gary looked up at her to see her glaring down with a cold expression she'd never had before. "Arti?"

Arti shook her head as if to clear it then returned to glare down at Gary. "I said, let go." she ordered again.

Arti suddenly screamed out in pain holding her head. Gary's eyes grew wide as he realized Arti had lost control of her hold on him and even herself. They both started to fall to the ground kilometres below.

* * *

"Hey look!" Mist called out as she opened a door. "I think I found a way out!!!"

Ash and Brock came running down the hall tripping over each other untill they finally reached Misty and her doorway to freedom. Ash and Brock crowded about trying to see what was down the stair case only to cause all three of them to go tumbling down the stair and land in a heap at the base of the Stairs. At the time Professor Oak was walking by.

"Ah, so here you three are," Oak said with Pikachu on one shoulder and Growlithe beside him. "I was beginning to worry. I thought Growlithe had scared you all the way to Cinnibar."

Ash looked up, since he was under the pile (Misty and Brock), to see Growlithe. The puppy yipped and licked Ash's face leaving puppy drool all on him. Ash squirmed about trying to get out from under Misty and Brock. "Help!" he yelped. "You're crushing me, Misty!"

Misty hopped to her feet then Stepped on Ash. "I'll show you crushing you!!!!!"

"Uh, Misty." Brock choked out. "Thats me not Ash!"

"Oh!"

Misty stepped off Brock and let him and Ash get up. Ash gasped for air the scrambled into the living room where he crashed onto a papasan in the corner. "Misty, you're getting heavier every day it seems!"

Misty turned red with rage and stormed into the livingroom towering over Ash. "You take that back right now Ash Ketchem!!!"

Ash sighed. "Alright, alright, I take it back..."

"Thats better," Misty smiled.

"But it's still true!" Ash yelled then ran off into the kitchen.

"Ash!!! You get back here!!!" misty called as she took chase to Ash with Brock trailing behind.

* * *

Oak sighed as Ash ran by with Misty close behind. "If this keeps up he'll never get anywhere in life..." Oak muttered.

Growlithe sat at Oak's side as he'd gotten used to doing now then tugged on Oak's pant leg. "Grrrowlithe!" the puppy barked.

Oak looked down. "Oh, what is it?"

Growlithe dragged Oak to the glass doors that lead to the pokémon reserve and barked. "Grrowwwl." he whimpered scratching the floor by the door.

Oak looked outside. Still no sign of Arti or Gary. "You're right, boy. We probably should go looking for them."

Growlithe perked up and bounced around. "Growl, Grrrrrrrooowwwwwwwlithe!"

Oak smiled down at the pokémon as he opened the door. "My, aren't you excitable."

Growlithe pried the door open as soon as Oak started to open it. He poked his head through then forced the rest of his body through. "Hey!" Oak called. "Wait up!"

Growlithe ran around in circles practically doing backflips and everything. "Growlithe! Growithe! Grrrowwwwwwl!" he yipped.

Oak ran out the door after the puppy. "Slow down already!" he said as Growlithe got behind Oak and began to puss him along. "Okay! You run ahead them come back and get me!"

* * *

"Arti!!!" Gary screamed as the ground grew closer. "Do something already!!!"

Arti looked up at Gary as her head seemed to clear. The only problem was it wasn't her usual personality. She seemed different, just like every other time she'd had a sudden wack to the head or head ache come on. Arti looked at Gary as if she didn't know him. "Abra?" she said sounding like a pokémon.

"Arti! This isn't the time to play pokémon on me!!!" Gary continued screaming. "Spread your wings and fly!!! FLY!!!!"

Arti still looked confused. "Abra. Abra abra!" she said then teleported away leaving Gary. Gary cried out as he continued to fall. "ARTI CUNO!!!!"


	11. Birds of a Feather Part 11

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Eleven

Gary closed his eyes as he realized there was no way anyone would hear him or if they did, be able to help. Gary watched as the ground grew closer and closer. _I'm gonna die!_ Gary thought, the voice in his head wailing. _I'm too young to die! I have so much still to do! To be come a pokémon master... pokémon?_

Gary reached for a poké ball on his belt and threw it into the air. "Go, Pidgeot!"

Pidgeot came from its poké ball and circled about for a moment. "Pidgeot!!" the bird squaked.

Pidgeot swooped down catching Gary gliding him down to the ground safely. The pokémon let Gary go just before it landed making Gary fall to the ground scared to death. He flopped on him back looking up into the sky, breathing heavily. Pidgeot sat beside him looking concerned. "Pidge, Pidgeot?"

Gary sat up after he caught his breath. "Thanks, Pidgeot." he said, giving the bird's feathers a rub then calling him into his poké ball. "Now... I've got to go find Arti and see what the hell happened up there. It's as if she turned into an Abra!"

* * *

Arti sat kicked back against a tree half asleep. "Abraaa..." she yawned.

After a few minutes she snapped up wide awake taking on a new personality again. "Purrr? Pursian?"

Arti looked about with her head to one side. "Purrr...?"

"Growwwwwl!"

Growlithe suddenly came bounding through the bushes and tackled Arti. She growled and hissed at the puppy reacting as if she was now a pursian. Arti jumped backards then, as Growlithe can up to lick her, she lashed out and slashed the puppy.

Growlithe tackled Arti then slammed her onto her back as he sat on her stomach. "Grrrrrrrowlithe..." the pokémon growled.

Arti blinked twice as if coming to her senses. Just as she did Professor Oak came through the bushes where Growlithe came from. "Arti!" he exclaimed. "I thought I'd never find you! Uh, where's Gary at?"

Arti looked around, "I dunno," she replied. "I dunno where I am or how I got here even!!!"

Arti suddenly looked paniced and chirped hugging her Growlithe. The puppy licked her and cuddled, whimpering. Arti rested her head on Growlithe's. "My darlin' puppy." she whisper to him.

Growlithe wagged his tail and licked Arti again. Arti giggled but stopped as Prof Oak cleared his throat. "We'll have time for fun and games later. We should look for Gary."

Arti nodded and got to her feet. "The last thing I remember is, umm..." Arti began to blush and covered her face trying to hide it.

Oak raised an eyebrow. "Is there something I should know about?"

Arti quickly shook her head. "No, no, nothing you should know..."

Growlithe sniffed the air then growled. "Growlithe!" he barked and ran off in the direction he was sniffing.

"Hey! wait up!" Arti called taking chase to the puppy.

"Wait, Arti!" Oak called after her. "Oh never mind. I'll catch up later..."

* * *

Gary grumbled to himself as he passed a herd of tauros. The bull pokémon kept a watchful eye as he passed but other then that looked uneffected. _When I find that girl I'll give her a piece of my mind... leaving my to fall to my death like that! If it wasn't for my pidgeot I'd be dead now!!!_ Gary thought.

Gary stopped and looked down at his growling stomach. It'd been almost a day since he'd last ate and lack of food was taking it's tole on him. He pushed it aside and continued walking along the never ending trails beat down by Arti's rapidash, Chris's ponyta and herds of other pokémon. Gary sighed and desided to find a place to rest. He was now in a wide open field with the only source of shade anywhere close being an old tree where a flock of pidgeys were resting. _Well, if it's good enough for the pokémon, it's good enough for me!_

As Gary reached the tree all the pidgeys flew off except one. The bird looked up at Gary like it didn't want to move and the only way he would is by force. "Go on." Gary said, pushing the bird away with a foot.

The pidgey cooed then flapped its wings kicking up dust and blinding Gary. "Hey!!!"

Gary was blown backwards onto his butt and was left humilated. "Damned bird..." he muttered.

Gary brushed himself off and grumbled a few curses in the bird's direction. "Looks like I'll have to find somewhere else..."

* * *

Ash sighed as he tossed one of his poké balls up and down. "Hey guys," he said, causing Misty to pull her head out from the fridge and making Brock look up from a cook book he'd found. "Do you think we should move on? I mean, I still have two other badges to get. I can't be wasting my time on on this one. It seems Arti is the toughest trainer out of all the gym leaders. I guess I should come back after my pokémon are stronger."

Misty finished chewing on a carrot stick she had half in her mouth. "Actually that's a good idea, you're finally thinking, Ash!"

Brock nodded. "I've never saw pokémon as well trained as the one's Arti has other then the ones that the elite four themselves are rumored to carry."

Ash sighed again and leaned back against the kitchen counter. "Well, all thats left now is to decide when we're leaving. Should we go today or wait until tomorrow?"

Misty shoved another carrot in her mouth then rummaged trough a fridge a bit more finally coming out with some celery and apples to go with her carrot. "Maybe we should wait until tomorrow. We can get ready tonight then leave in the morning."

Brock nodded again as he gathered some things from the cupboards. He laid out the ingredients on the counter next to Ash then went to the fridge taking his turn to nose around. "Leaving tomorrow is a good idea. We still need to stop at the stores and gather things before we go."

"Pi pikachu!"

Ash looked down at the floor and saw Pikachu and Pikapi looking up at him.

"Pika?"

"Chu?"

The two pikachu jumped on Ash's houlders, Pikachu to the right and Pikapi to the left.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

Pikachu waved his arm about as he tried to explain he'd been with Pikapi. The baby pikachu had been showing Pikachu around the house then they'd gone out in the fields to meet the other pikachu. Ash nodded as if he understood although he was really completely lost.

"Well. I guess it doesn't matter. I'm just glad to see you back!"

Togepi sat on the table in the middle of the kithen squeeling happily. "Toge! Togepriiiiiii!!!"

Misty was feeding Togepi some of her celery. The little pokémon wagged its arms in the air. "Toge! Priiii!!!!"

Misty giggled then picked Togepi up hugging it.

"Pika!" Pikapi yelled suddenly.

The pikachu jumped from Ash's head and ran out of the room. Pikachu, Ash's pikachu, leaned off of Ash as if he was going to take chase but didn't. Pikachu sat back on Ash and sighs. "Pika pika..."

Ash scratched Pikachu behind the ears. "What was that all about?" he asked.

Pikachu sighed and hopped into Ash's arms. "Pi pikachu." he said seeming not to know.

* * *

Gary collapsed under the heat of the sun. He'd been wandering for hours now and he was completely lost. _So,_ he thought. _This is the end? Somehow I thought I'd go out with a bang, not trying to find my way out of a stupid pokémon reserve!!!!_

He sighed and layed staring up into the sky watching the clouds and bird pass by. He closed his eyes momentarily then opened then to see a strange pokémon looking him in the eyes. The pokémon was blue-green and looked like it was of the water type. "Aquada?" the strange finned pokémon asked.

"Aquada?" Gary repeated. "A water pokémon out here...?"

The aquada looked suddenly scared and took off running. "Hey! Wait!" Gary called as he jumped to his feet and took chase to the water pokémon. "If you're out here that means theres water near by!!!"

The pokémon waddled faster and faster trying to get away from Gary. The poor little thing was scared to death and wasn't used to having human around. "Aquada!!!" it screeched.

Gary finally gave up and collapsed back to the ground causing a pile of dust to float into the air. "It's not worth it..." he muttered, getting a mouthful of hot dry mud.

"Grrrowlithe!"

Gary grumbled something to himself. "Go away to leave me die." he finally said after a pause.

The growlithe tugged at Gary shirt dragging him in the mud. "Growl-ithe, growl-ithe." he growled with every tug.

Finally Gary was fed up with letting the puppy push him around. He struggled to stand up then looked down at the puppy, almost ready to fall back to the ground. "Go away!" he snapped. "Shoo- ACK!!!"

Before Gary knew what was going on he was tackled to the ground by the growlithe who was again draging him. Growlithe dragged Gary for a long time before finally letting go and licking him. "Oh, lay off." Gary snarled, followed by a string of curses.

He pushed himself up so he could see what was around and noticed a pond with a ton a plant pokémon crowded about it soaking in the water. Gary's eyes light up as he stumbled to his feet and simply collapsed again right into the water.

"What _are_ you doing...?"

Gary's head snapped around to see Arti looking down at him. Gary turned away and continued to sit in the water. "Well, you left me to die so I don't see why I should even bother answering that." he snapped.

Arti rolled her eyes and grabbed Gary by the hair dragging him to his feet. "Look here, in case you didn't noticed I wasn't myself at the time. I remember falling then nothing else. I blacked out, okay!!" Arti snapped back then threw Gary back into the water. "But, if you wanna be _that_ way, I'll leave. Find you're own way back to town."

"Arti..."

"I mean it! I always get yelled at by everyone and I'm not about to take you doing it too... The town's people are either scared of me or hate me cause I'm 'evil'..."

Oak came stumbling along finally and leaned agaisn't Arti panting. "I'd find something else to lean against, dear, but I don't see any tree around." Oak huffed. "I hope you don't mind."

Arti smirked. "No problem."

Gary's expression turned black as coal. He snapped out of the water scaring most of the pokémon off and soaking others. "Arti, what do I have to do to prove to you I'm not against you!?" Gary blurted out. "Do I have to come right out and say I love you? If thats what you want, it's true! I do love you!"

Oak's eyes stared momentarily into nowhere then found their way to look at Gary. Arti simply made a face and turned back-to leaving Oak to stand under his own power.

"C'mon, what did I do now...?"

Arti cooed and crossed her arms. She wouldn't reply. Gary walked up behind her and pulled her back into his arms. Arti turned around and cooed again cuddling Gary. He pulled her tight against him and smiled. "You just wanted attention?"

Again Arti cooed then nodded. The whole time Oak looked at the two of them with a supicious eye.

"Is there something going on here I should know about?" Oak demanded.

Arti turned red and burried her face into Gary. Gary smirked and looked to face Oak. "Nothing you should know, but probably something you'll demand to know anyways, Gramps."

Oak gave Gary a stern look. "Tell me. Now."

Arti squacked loudly catching Gary's attention then cooed again. She shook her head telling him not to tell his grandfather. Gary ruffled her hair. "He'll find out anyways," Gary pointed out.

"Find out what!?" Oak's demands were getting louder each time now.

Arti started to glow like she did the last time Gary saw her teleport. "Hey!" he snapped. "Don't you dare take off on me here!"

Before Gary realized what had happened he found himself, Arti, Growlithe, and Professor Oak all in Arti's house again.


	12. Birds of a Feather Part 12

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Twelve

Misty peered into the cupboards opening then closing them, one right after the other. She suddenly had a worried look on her face then turned to Ash, Pikachu, and Brock. Brock was pulling a cake out of the oven and Ash and Pikachu sat at the table. Ash had ate so much he'd taken his belt off and it was laying on the table in front of him.

"Wow," Ash moaned, "I've never ate this much in my life!"

Pikachu nodded agreeing as he tried to stand up. The poor pokémon was bloated and laying on his back, on the table, stuck. "Pika!"

Ash pushed Pikachu onto his feel. The electric mouse waddled across the table and sat down in front of the fresh-from-the-oven cake. "Pika! Pi pikachu!"

Pikachu stuffed a piece of the cake in his mouth then waddled back to where he'd been laying beside Ash. Misty sighed and hung her head. "Uh, guys," she spoke up. "We have a problem..."

Everyone looked over to Misty. She had a funny smile come across her face as she showed the others the empty cupboards. They had eaten almost everything in only a few hours. "Arti's gonna kill us!!!" Ash yelped jumping to his feet.

As soon as Ash stood up his pants dropped to his ankles since he'd taken his belt off and had the zipper partly undone. He freaked out and yanked his pants back up leaving Misty bright red, covering her face and Brock shaking his head.

"What are we going to do?" Misty asked. "We can't pay for everything we ate!"

Pikachu rolled off of the table hitting the floor with a thump. "Piiii..." he wailed, unable to move under his own power.

Ash tried to bend over to pick up the fat pokémon but he couldn't bend over far enough. "Heh, heh. I guess I over did it." he smirked.

Misty put her hand to her forehead and sighed. "What are we going to do!? This is all Ash's fault. He ate everything!"

"ME?" Ash retorted. "You and Togepy at all the vegetables and fruits in the fridge!!!"

"And YOU and PIKACHU ate all the candy and cakes!!!"

"But BROCK made the cakes!"

"Me?" Brock jumped in. "I only made one cake then Ash told me to make another!"

"Well, Pikachu ate the first!" Ash snapped.

"Pi! Pika pi! Kachu!"

The four continued to fight until Brock stopped and hushed the others. "Someone's here." he pointed out, listening.

The others listened and heard Professor Oak and Gary exchanging some rather harsh words.

"Garys back?" Ash asked. "That means Arti's here and I can get one last challenge in before we leave!"

"Uh, Ash," Misty said, tapping him on the shoulder. "I don't think Pikachu's in fighting shape..."

Misty pointed to the pokémon rolling about n the floor trying to get to its feet. Ash wailed and fell to the floor, legs in the air.

"Sounds like somethings wrong in there," Brock added, peeking out of the kitchen and into the next room.

Misty looked to see what Brock was seeing and she realized he was just trying to hear better. She walked down the hall and peered around a corner, into the room where the growlithe had been fighting with them before.

"Wha'...?" she whispered to herself.

No one could see Misty but, from where she was, she could see everything. She stared in shock at the sight of Arti's huge blue wings and long articuno tail dragging behind her. "She's part pokémon...?"

"What was that, Misty?" Ash asked, rather loudly, as he came up behind her.

Misty clamped her hand over his mouth and pulled him out of sight before anyone could see them. "Be quiet! They'll hear-" Misty said quietly but stopped to listen.

The fighting had stopped for the moment and Misty had an uneasy feeling come over her. "Uh oh..." she said to herself.

* * *

"I DEMAND to know what was going on back there!" Oak yelled in Gary's face. 

Arti had slowly crept away from Oak and Gary and was now standing about 2 metres away. Gary, however, couldn't get away. Oak had grabbed him by the front of his shirt and held him where he was so he couldn't leave.

Gary turned his head to the side and smirked. "I can't tell," he grinned evilly. "You'll probably find out eventually."

As Gary's smirk widened, Oak grew madder. Oak looked as if he was going to start twitching at any moment. Growlithe barked and his ears perked up. At the same time Arti cooed and looked behind her. "Did you hear that?" she asked. "Sounded like someone talking..."

Arti tilted her head to one side and chirped. She cautiously walked to where Misty and Ash were not knowing they were there. Pikapi thankfully came bouncing along and tackled Arti before she could see anyone. "Pika! Pi pikachu!" he yelped, hugging her and thundershocking everyone anywhere nearby unintentionally.

Arti fell to the ground with a thump, laughing while Ash, Misty, Gary, and Professor Oak yelled out in pain as they were electricuted. "Pika! Pi pika! Kachu!" Pikapi giggled waving his arms around in the air as Arti picked him up and held him in the air.

"Pikapi..." Gary groaned as he fell to the ground half dead.

Ash and Misty screamed and fell in a pile on top of Pikachu. Pikachu got mad and zapped the pair of them just as Pikapi did, leaving them in more pain then before.

Arti made an odd sound then looked over to see Ash and Misty tangled up together laying on the floor. Growlithe trodded up to them and barked making Misty freak out and accidentally slam Ash harder into the floor. She tried to get up and away from the puppy but it wasn't working out. 

"Misty!" Ash moaned. "You're killing me down here!"

Arti sat Pikapi down and teleported herself to her feet. Pikapi then ran up her leg and perched on her shoulder. "Pik, pikachu!!!" he said, rubbing his cheek against Arti's.

Gary stumbled to his feet behind Arti and was again holding onto his arm. "Can't you control that pikachu!" he snapped then winched in pain.

Oak still laid on the floor unconcious. Gary nudged him with a foot. "Hey, Gramps!"

Arti went to help Ash and Misty get untangled as Gary rudely tried to bring Professor Oak "back to life".

"That's it." Gary declaired. "He's dead."

Ash, being the gullable fool he is, believed Gary and jumped to his feet flipping Misty backwards and going to Oak's side. "Hey! Professor Oak! You can't be dead! wake up!"

Gary couldn't help but laugh despite the pain he was in. He couldn't believe Ash feel for such an obvious lie. "You dult!" Gary snorted. "It was a joke! Sarcasm!"

Ash blinked and looked coldly at Gary. "Why are you alway so mean!?"

Gary sneered and crossed his arms only to start wailing and holding his hurt arm. "What the hell is wrong with this stupid arm?!" he hollored.

Arti cuddled upto Gary to calm him down then pushed his sleeve up to look at his arm. "This hurt?" she asked lightly poking a place near a bruise. 

Gary cringed and cursed pulling away. "Yeah, that hurts!" he snapped.

Arti sighed. "Then my guess is that it's broken."

"BROKEN???" Gary yelled. "But- but thats the arm I use to throw poké balls with!!!"

Ash pointed at Gary and laughed. "Looks like you're gonna fall behind now! You can't battle pokémon if you can't trow a poké ball!"

Gary stepped up to Ash and stomped down hard on his foot. "Oh, shut up, looser!"

"PIKA!" Pikachu snapped from beside Ash.

The little electric pokémon charged up for a thundershock while Pikapi jumped off Arti's shoulder and sat beside Gary. "PIKA!" the smaller pikachu snapped back thunderbolting Pikachu.

"Chuuu!" Pikachu whimpered and hid behind Ash's leg, scared of the more powerful pokémon.

"Pi!" Pikapi smiled, climbing Gary's leg and sitting on his head.

Arti poked Gary in the back of his head. "Hey, if you go get that arm looked after then the sooner you'll be able to continue your training."

Gary turned to face Arti leaving Ash jumping around holding onto his foot wailing. "Can't you just heal it yourself like you did all the other times I was hurt?" Gary asked.

Arti shook her head and sighed. "Right now I can't. Like a pokémon I have limits on my attacks and all that. You've used up all my healing powers. That and I'm low on energy..."

Arti smirked and elbowed Gary in the ribs. He looked down at her with raised eyebrows. "Well, WHEN will you be able to fix this?"

Ash suddenly wacked Gary in the back of the head. "You wanna fight I'll give you a fight!!!" Ash yelled, sick of Gary teasing him and beating him up.

As soon as Gary turned to see what Ash was yelling about, Ash decked him square in the face. Gary fell to the floor holding his nose whining. "You- you.." he stammered not knowing what to call Ash.

Arti stepped in front of Gary protectively and began to growl. "Not a good idea," she warned.

Ash suddenly lost his nerve and looked terrorfied. "Uh, um, I'm really sorry!" he tried to appologize.

In the background Oak began to regain conciousness and groaned as he got to his feet.

Arti glared at Ash, showing no merci. "Not good enough," she said coldly, spreading her wings out. "I'm getting sick of you and you're uselessness. I want you gone and don't come back until-"

Arti began to glow losing her enraged look and looking more scared. _Not now!_ she thought, realizing what was happening._ Not with everyone here!_

Everyone in the room stared in shock. "She's evolving?" Ash asked, stupidly.

Misty beat him over the head from behind. "Don't be so dumb!!!"

Gary got to his feet and looked at Arti in disbelief, she had turned completely into an articuno!

Arti covered her face with her wings scared of what everyone would think. Gary put a hand on her wing and pulled it away. "Arti?" he asked, dumbfounded.

Arti cooed, unable to reply. Ash's eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of his head whereas Misty had already fainted from the shock of what happened. Professor Oak approached Arti and gave her an odd look. "This is quite preculiar..." he said, looking like he was trying to figgure out what ould have caused such a strange thing to happen.

Arti noticed that Gary didn't seemed as freaked out as the rest of the group. Almost as if he knew something was going to happen. She cooed and brushed her cheek against his as she began to glow like she did before and change back to her half human/half bird self.

"I guess this calls for another explination?" Arti asked, wings still wrapped around herself.

Ash had finally calmed down but found another reason to go nuts. Arti glared at him. "I know, I know!" she muttered sharply. "I can't help it if I loose my clothes when I transform!"

Gary had a strange smile creep up on his face while Ash smirked blushing and Brock nosily poked his head in the room at the words "no clothes on". Arti's long hair and wings covered her up so that nothing could be seen but it was obvious she was beginning to get pissed off again.

"All right, nothing to see here." she grumbled glaring at each of the guys in the room one at a time.

Arti teleported herself out of the room from the crowd leaving all the guys stunned.

"I can't wait to hear this 'explination'," Oak said, trying to hide a smile of his own. "I always knew there was something odd about her ever since I first met her."


	13. Birds of a Feather Part 13

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Thirteen

Gary waited outside Arti's room while she cursed about having nothing to wear. Gary smirked to himself as she yelled at a pair of her pokémon laying on her bed, looking at her. The door to Arti's room momentairly flew open and a Pidgeot was kicked out of her room followed by a strange winged pokémon that looked like another weird eevee evolution.

"Areon!" it yelped and ran off with it's wings tucked in tight against it's body and tail between it's legs.

Gary stuck his foot in the door keeping it open and sighed. "Aren't you dressed yet? Well, even if you're not I'm comin' in."

"You want me to break yer footin the door?!" Arti snapped holding the door closed. "I'll be out in a MINUTE!"

Gary sighed and pulled his foot away letting Arti slam the door. A few seconds later she came out dressed with Pikapi sitting on her head. "Pi pikachu!" the pikachu happily yelled.

Arti pulled the pikachu from her head and held it in her arms. "There, happy?" she asked Gary.

He nodded while rubbing his arm. "Yeah, I guess. Now, you've got some more explaining to do you know..."

Arti plopped Pikapi on her shoulder and another pikachu seemed to come from nowhere and take a seat on her other shoulder. "Pi!" it smiled, striking a pose.

Arti scritched the pikachu and walked into the living room where everyone was waiting for her to come back, and was sharing everything they'd already found out about Arti. Everyone stopped talking and looked at Gary and Arti as they entred the room. Misty, Brock, Ash, and Pikachu were taking up the couch while Professor Oak was half sitting on the arm of the couch. Pikachu perked up at the sight of Pikapi and the new pikachu and hopped off of Ash's head and ran to Arti running up her leg and sitting on her head between the other two pikachu.

Arti went over to her papasan in the corner of the room, on the side oposit to the couch, and flopped back into it with the pikachu all around her talking to each other. "So, time to explain everything I suppose..." she sighed, as Gary stood beside her looking down at her.

Arti moved the pikachu to one side and pulled Gary down beside her. "Well, I might as well start from way back at the start..."

Arti explained everything to Ash, Misty, Brock and Professor Oak that she had to Gary the evening before then paused before she continued to add to that story. "Well, when I was explaining this before I didn't mention the second pokémon I was mixed with was a ditto. I gained the ablity to transform so thats how I stay mostly human all the time. Other wise I'm completely pokémon, well, articuno that is. Like when I got mad just a little while ago. When ever I get like that I loose control over my transformation powers and I revert to an articuno..."

Arti paused as every obsorbed all the information. "But, what about that black out where you thought you was an abra? You said you're ditto and Articuno, not part abra." Gary pointed out.

Arti nodded. "True, I'm not supposed part abra but I have transformed into one before. Cause of that I gained part of it's DNA somehow and it's now permenatly imprinted into me. My black outs are when that pokémon's personality takes over and controls me. Quite often something will trigger one of the many different personalities to come out leaving me in the dark. I can't tell what's going on at that point and I never know unless I read someone's mind and get it from them or I simply ask..."

Oak looked as if he was thinking about what Arti said pretty deeply but before he could say what he was going to, Brock jumped in. "It sounds like a really bad cause of pokémonitis and multipule personality disorder all in one." Brock said, as if he was a doctor and knew what he was talking about.

Arti snorted and glared at Brock. "If it was THAT simple I'd have it under control, don't you think?" she snapped.

"Pi pikapi!" Pikapi scolded shaking his finger at Brock.

Arti's other pikachu crossed its arms and nodded. "PIKA!"

Arti scritched her two pikachu behind their ears and hugged Pikachu, Ash's pikachu, as she smiled. "You tell em." she said with a wink.

Gary pulled Arti back into his arms and hugged her like she was doing to the three pikachu in her arms. "Pikapi!" Pikapi grumbled, holding onto Arti as if she was his.

"Pipika!" Arti's other pikachu said mimicing Pikapi's actions.

Ash sat looking totally stupified. "You're a pokémon, then?" he asked.

Misty clubbed Ash over the head. "YOU MORON!" she yelled. "She's human with pokémon powers!!!"

Arti smiled. "Actually I am PART pokémon..." she pointed out.

"Well, since you can obviously transform," Oak jumped in. "Why not show us another of these transformations of yours?"

Arti turned pale and smirked. "You want me to.. transform.... here? Now?"

Oak nodded. "We've seen you transform into an articuno but I'd like to see what you're other transformations are like."

"Well, um..." Arti stammered, blushing.

Oak raised an eyebrow. "You said you could transform yet you won't actually show us?"

Gary started to smile. "She can't transform back with her clothes on." he pointed out, grinning widely. "In case you didn't notice before, that is..."

Oak's other eyebrow raised. "Oh, of course. I'd forgotten already."

"Does this mean you can use all the different pokémon's attacks?" Brock asked.

Arti nodded. "Every single one. Although, I'm partial to ice and bird attacks."

"I wonder why?" Gary mused, poking Arti's stomach.

Arti burst out laughing scaring Pikachu and Pikapi off but the other pikachu stayed and jumped onto Gary's shoulder. "PIKACHU!"

The pikachu thundershocked Gary for scaring it and the other pikachu. Gary groaned and fell back on the papasan. "Stupid rat..."

"What about when you fainted that first day we met. You was using your mew then something seemed to happen." Misty said.

"Well," Arti sighed. "I was psychically linked to Mew boosting his power. Thats how I control all my psychic pokémon, by linking to them, but if it's a tough battle I'll lend them my engery."

Again everyone was silent for a moment taking in everything Arti had explained. Ash however was bored with what was going on. He sighed and stood up to walk out of the room. "C'mon, Misty, Brock, Pikachu. I'm going to gather our things so we can leave tomorrow. I've heard enough, here."

Arti perked up. "You're leaving?"

Ash turned back and nodded. "It's obvious your pokémon are too powerful for me to defeat just yet. I'll be back after I get the Volcan Badge from the trainer on Cinnibar though!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed, jumping onto Ash's shoulder.

"Pika!" Pikapi wailed and started to cry. "Pi pikachu!!! Pika!"

The little pikachu sat crying in the middle of the floor until Pikachu and Arti's other pikachu came to it's side.

"Pika?" Pikachu asked.

"Pika. Pika pikachu!" Pikapi whimpered, hugging Pikachu.

"Uh, what's going on?" Ash wondered.

Arti got down with her pikachu. "Pikapi..." she said cuddling the pikachu. "It's okay, Pikachu's gonna come back sooner or later."

"Pika...." Pikapi cried.

"C'mere, Pikapi, Pipika." Arti cooed to her pikachu.

The two pikachu cuddled up to her as if they were her actual "babies" as she called most of her pokémon. "Pi, pikapi chu. kachu pi." Arti smiled, as she stood up with the pikas in her arms.

"Pikachuuuu...." Pikachu started to cry, while sitting on Ash's head.

"Stop that, Pikachu." Ash sniffed. "I'm gonna start to cry."

Pikachu forced himself to stop crying. "Pikapika..."

Misty and Brock stood up to follow Ash out of the room. "I'll got clean up the mess in the kitchen before we pack up," Brock decided. "We left quite a mess in there."

"I'll help!" Misty said chasing Brock into the kitchen.

"Mess?" Arti asked.

Ash hung his head and sighed, avoiding Arti's question. "C'mon, Pikachu. Just you and me..."

Ash wandered out of the room leaving Arti, Gary, and Oak alone.

"Sooo..." Gary simply said looking about the room. "What n- OW!!!"

Gary grabbed his arm and gritted his teeth. Arti put her pikachu down and went to Gary's side. "Stop over doing everything!" she scolded. "You should really have that taken care of."

Oak nodded. "She's right. I say you should go see a doctor righ now."

Gary grumbled something while giving the wall a dirty look. "Why me...?" was the only thing he said that could be heard.

* * *

Ash finished up with packing his things and put his backpack on his shoulder. Pikachu jumped onto his other shoulder as Ash walked from the room he was in into the hall heading for the kitchen where Brock and Misty still were.

As Ash entred the room he dropped his backpack on the floor by the door so he could simply grab it simply on his way out. Pikachu jumped onto the table with Togepi and played with the baby pokémon while Ash and the others talked.

Misty was putting dishes away while Brock was finishing drying the last of them. "So, you're not going to battle Arti one last time like you thought you were going to?" Brock asked, handing Misty a plate.

Ash leaned back against the counter and sighed. "I dunno, it's not like I'd win even if I did challenge her... I might, thought. Just to see what happens and prepare for the next time I meet her."

Misty nodded. "If you challenge her one more time take notes on how she battles. If you know her stratagy, you'll be able to get the upper hand."

"Alright then!" Ash exclaimed. "I'll challenge her right now!"

"You'll have to wait." Brock said, putting the final dish away. "Arti, Professor Oak, and Gary left a few minutes ago. They said they'd be back in an hour or so."

Ash groaned and kicked at the floor. "Looks like I'll just have to wait then... But, this gives me time to get Pikachu and the others ready for battle!"

Ash grabbed Pkachu by the arm and ran out of the kitchen as fast as he could. "C'mon, Pikachu! We've got some training to do!"


	14. Birds of a Feather Part 14

Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part Fourteen

"You hold his arms and I'll get his legs!" Arti yelled to Professor Oak.

Gary was laid back on a table kicking and screaming trying to get away from one of the doctors. The doctor had jokingly said Gary's arm would have to be cut off and that started Gary's fit. Arti held onto Gary's legs pinning them to the table while Oak grabbed his arms and held him so he couldn't move.

"This is tourture!" Gary hollered thrashing about.

Arti finally jumped up onto the table and sat on Gary's stomach. "Behave! That idiot was joking! He's only going to put yer arm in a cast!"

"I don't care!" Gary continued holloring, but stopped thrashing. "Why can't you fix this for me!?"

Oak released Gary and stepped back a bit leaving Arti to hold him down. Arti leaned down nose to nose with Gary and looked him in the eyes. "What are you doing?" he asked, looking back into her eyes.

"You're gonna stop causing a scene and calm down. You'll behave and let the doctor put a cast on your arm. Okay?" Arti said, still staring in his eyes.

"Uh huh..." Gary replied, completely hypnotized.

Arti sat back up and hopped off Gary and stood beside Oak. "There, he'll be fine now.. for a while. I can only hypnotize a person for a half an hour tops."

Oak looked down at Arti with a raised eyebrow. "Hypnosis?"

Arti nodded. "I could have been mean and used Dream Eater too."

An evil grin came across her face, a look that could scare just about anyone. "Is-is there something wrong?" Oak stammered.

"Gengar!" Arti growled at Oak looking ready to attack him.

Oak quickly stepped away from Arti expecting her to lash out and use a ghost attack on him only to have her fall to the ground laughing. Oak ran to her side and looked down at her. "What's wrong?!"

"Y-you should have seen the look on yer face!" she giggled, holding her sides. "I wish I had a camera!"

Oak made a strange face and walked out of the room just as a doctor walked in to put a cast on Gary. Arti stopped laughing just as quick as she'd started and frowned. "Fine, be that way... I was only joking around..."

Arti teleported herself so that she was sitting on the side of the table Gary was laying on. She waited for the doctor to finish with his arm then snapped her fingers waking him up. "C'mon, hon. Let's go back home."

Gary grogily sat up and looked around. "Huh?" he asked. "Home?"

"Yeah, home, my house." Arti said, poking him in the side.

Gary pulled back then pulled Arti up close to him with his good arm. "Be nice and teleport us back, then. I don't feel like walking."

Arti pulled herself onto Gary's lap and kissed him. "Lazy." she teased, nose to nose with him again. "I might make you walk and teleport myself back home."

"You wouldn't dare," Gary smiled, then kissed Arti on the cheek.

"Says you!" she winked and teleported away.

"Hey!" Gary yelled, but before he could say anything else he was telepored away too.

* * *

Ash stood out in the front yard of Arti's house training his pokémon battling them one against the other. Pikachu and Squirtle were out first.

"Squirtle, Water Gun!" Ash called.

"Squirtle!!!"

Squirtle used his water gun attack on Pikachu but before the water hit the electric pokémon Ash turned to Pikachu. "Pikachu! Agility! Then give him your Thundershock attack!"

Pikachu dodged Squirtle's water then came running at the turtle. "Pika-CHU!"

Pikachu sent bolts of electricity out at Squirtle. "Squirt?" Squirtle asked Ash, really asking what he was supposed to do.

"Uh, pull inside your shell!" Ash instructed.

Squirtle went into his shell avoiding the electric attack then popped his head out looking around. Not seeing Pikachu, he came out of his sell all the way only to find Pikachu sitting on his back. "SQUIRTLE!!!" Squirtle yelled, trying to get away.

"What ARE you doing?" came Gary's voice from nowhere.

Ash stopped Pikachu and Squirtle from battling and looked to the front door of the house to see Arti and Gary standing there. "Hey, you're back! How'd you get past me???" Ash hollored.

"She teleported us, Stupid." Gary snapped. "But the question was, 'What are you doing?'"

Ash called Squirtle back in his poké ball and Pikachu jumped onto Ash's head. "I was warming up my pokémon! Arti, I challenge you to a pokémon battle!"

Arti stepped forward. "You won't win. You know that but still you want to fight?"

Ash nodded. "I may not win but it'll give me plenty of experience! Not only for the next time we meet but the challenges I have ahead of me!"

"Stop being so mellowdramatic," Gary yawned. "It's getting boring."

Ash fell to the grouns with Pikachu on his head wailing. "I'm not mellowdramatic!!!"

"Actually, you are." Brock said, coming from the house with Misty. "We heard the fighting so we guessed Gary was back."

"Brock!" Ash whined, jumping to his feet.

"Knock it off!" Arti screamed, fire shooting up around her from the ground. "We're going to the gym and getting this OVER WITH."

A group of Arti's bird pokémon (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, MissingNo., Houou, and another that was green and looked like it was a grass type) landed around her, glaring at Ash, Misty, and Brock.

"I'll be nice and teleport everyone to the gym, making you're time to suffer before the battle short." Arti smirked.

A light started to shine around everyone, including the birds, then the all disappeared only to reapear in the gym. Ash looked around remembering his last horrible defeat. If Arti had done that only with her "low leveled" pokémon then what might happen with her birds?

"Three pokémon battle." Arti declaired. "Battle starts now."

"Alright!" Ash exclaimed pulling a poké ball from his belt. "Go, Pidgeotto!"

Arti smiled and took a poké ball from a sack on her belt. "I'll be nice toy you thiss time and give you the advantage. Go, Butterfree!"

"Butterfree?" Ash, Misty, and Brock all asked.

A butterfree came from Arti's poké ball and fluttered around for a moment. Ash looked right at the pokémon then he saw something. A yellow ribbon around it's neck! "Hey! That's MY butterfree!!!"

Ash ran out onto the gym floor and ran upto Butterfree hugging it. "Butterfree!" he yelled happily. "I missed you buddy!!!"

Arti looked pissed off from the other side of the gym. Her hands were clenched tight at her sides and she was growling. "That's MY butterfree! I caught it a week ago!"

"It is not!" Misty jumped in. "Ash raised that butterfree from a catterpie! We let Butterfree go to have babies with its mate and we put that same yellow ribbon around its neck!"

Arti's expression softened. "It's really yours?" she asked Ash.

Ash nodded. "It's really mine."

Arti looked down at her poké ball then threw it to Ash. "Here. Take it. Butterfree's yours. And thats a master ball. I suggest you switch Butterfree to another poké ball and reuse the master ball. Concider it a gift. From what I've seen of this butterfree you've done a good job raising it. I've taught it new attacks since I caught it though... I suppose I should tell you what..."

"Butterfree knows new attacks? Cool! Hey, Butterfree! We should thank Arti, don't you think?"

"Freeeeeee!!!" Butterfree agreed.

"I taught him Psychic with my new TM I bought, and then I raised his levels so he learned all his attacks he'd normally learn. That inclueds his most powerful one, psybeam."

"Yeah!!!" Ash yelled, jumping up and down with Pikachu bouncing beside him.

"Well, on with our match," Arti interupted. "Forestra, go!"

"Forestra!" the grass type bird screeched, flying into battle.

"Do you still choose Pidgeotto?" Arti Asked. "I'll give you the benifit of the doubt and let you choose another and not have Pidgeotto count as the first."

"Hmmm." Ash pondered. "I'll choose Butterfree!"

Ash called the circling Pidgeotto back and let Butterfree flutter into battle.

"Alright, battle begins now." Arti declaired. "Forestra, Razor leaf!"

"Stra!" the bird squaked, flapping her wings causing a gust of razor sharp leaf to go flying about.

"Butterfree! Counter attack with Psybeam!"

"Freeee!" Butterfree squeeled, using his most powerful attack and causing Forestra to fall from the sky.

"Forestra!" Arti called. "Return! Go, Moltres!"

Moltres squaked and took flight replacing Forestra.

"Haha! I might actually win!" Ash said, getting full of himself. "Butterfree! Psychic!"

"Moltres! Wing Attack, followed up with Fire Spin!"

Moltres swooped behind Butterfree then, as it climbed into the air again, smashed its wing into the bug. Moltres flapped her wings kicking up a tornado of fire then trapping Butterfree in it.

"No! Butterfree! Return! Go, Squirtle!"

Squirtle was called into battle and looked around not expecting a flying pokémon as an enemy. "Up above you, Squirtle!" Ash said, pointing upward. "Use your Water Gun!"

"Moltres, Sky Attack!"

Moltres began to glow while she dodged Squirtles multipul water attacks. The fire bird dove suddenlt speeding to the ground, but, instead, slammed into Squirtle sending him across the room, defeated.

"Not Squirtle too!" Ash whined. "Uh, go, uhhh, Pikachu!"

Pikachu wondered out into battle and let sparks from his cheeks. "Pika!"

"Moltres, comeback!" Arti ordered. "Zapdos, go!"

The stubby winged Zapdos waddled ontn the gym's battle area not bothering to fly. He waddled right upto Pikachu and leered the smaller electric pokémon down.

"C'mon, Pikachu!" Ash cried out. "You're my last hope!"

Zapdos let out an ear percing cry that sounded like the crackling of electricty.

"Zapdos! Thunder!" Arti commanded.

"Chuuu." Pikachu whimpered and cringed.

Zapdos again cried out then electricshocked the pikachu. Pikachu wailed in pain then fee to the ground with swirlies in his eyes. "Piiiiikachuuuuu...." he whimpered.

"There!" Arti exclaimed, jumping into the air. "Still undefeated!"

She teleported across the gym to shake Ash's hand. "Good try, Ash! Forestra is one of my weaker birds though, but, none the less, you managed to defeat one out of three. That deservs something."

Arti reached into her pocket and pulled out another two poké balls. "When I said about the Master ball you looked a bit confused I noiced. You can't buy these anywhere. They're garenteed to catch anything you throw one at. I'm giving you my last two I have with me. Make sure you put them to good use."

Ash stared in awe at Arti's kind gesture. "You're just giving these to me?" he asked in disbelief.

Arti smiled. "Of course, Silly. They're yours now. I said when we first met I believe in you, well, even after my sudden rages at you, I still do. You'll be a master yet!"

Ash placed the master balls in his pocket for later use. "I won't let you down!" he declaired. "I will become a Pokémon Master!"

Misty and Brock stood behind Ash, both of them smiling. Ash turned to them. "Well, it's only half of our day gone. Why don't we start onto Cinnibar Island now? We can stop in town and grab a few things then move on." Ash suggested.

Misty nodded. "Good idea. We've got a long way to go to get to Cinnibar."

Arti snapped her fingers then Ash, Misty, and Brock's things were all read for them and sitting on the floor beside them. "That'll cut back on your time even more. I've already teleported the things you'll need for the trip from the pokémart to your backpacks."

Ash looked up at Arti again. "You didn't have to do all this..."

"Don't tell me I have to send it all back!" she winked. "I just used the last of my teleportation powers!"

Ash smiled. "Thank you, Arti. You've done too much for us. We'll be back again, sometime soon I hope, but untill then..." Ash picked his backpack up and put it on his shoulder. "Good bye!"

Ash looked to see Brock and Misty had already started walking and were ahead of him. He ran off waving back with Pikachu close behind him. "Pikachu!!!" Pikachu called back waving.

"Pika pika pi chu!" Arti called back to Pikachu. "Bye, Ash! And give Blane a good beating! he's too stuck up as it is!"

Ash left the gym leaving Arti and Gary there by themselves. Ash caught up with Misty and Brock only as they were at the town limits. He smiled proudly after winning two master balls and getting his butterfree back.

"Life's been good lately, hasn't it Pikachu?" he asked, the little elecetric mouse as it scampered to his head.

"Pi! Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed laying down for a nap as they all continued their long journey to Cinnibar.

The End

Author's note: After this story the next in the Series is "True Colors Prussian"


End file.
